Like Patty Griffin (to whom I’ve seen her compared), BettySoo knows how to love a musical note, how to hold it, shake it, and/or bend it for maximum emotional effect. Like Griffin, she specializes in a genre which both is and is not quite country, folk, pop, and/or rock. And like Griffin, the woman knows how to write a song.

All of which triggers a bit of cognitive dissonance when you find out that BettySoo is a five-foot-tall, apparently twenty-something Korean-American. Say what?!?

Let’s start this off with one of her own tunes, the driving “Never Knew No Love.” The video’s unofficial; while L.A.-noir-style film stills at first glance might seem a long distance away from the lyrics, the combination (“Never knew no man like the one you been missing / Never knew no love could break love’s vow”) actually works pretty well.

Lyrics:

Never Knew No Love
(BettySoo)

When the sun’s still beating down September
Can’t touch your toes to the pavement in the afternoon
Swinging out front, wondering whether
Sins of the summer gonna come
Catch up with you soon

Never knew no dirt didn’t come off in the kitchen
Never knew no stain like the one you’re hiding now
Never knew no man like the one you been missing
Never knew no love could break love’s vow

Fan my face but the moving just makes me hotter
Try to sit still as the creek down by the way
That dry bed ain’t seen no fresh water
Spent the last two months drying out without the rain

Never knew no dirt didn’t come off in the kitchen
Never knew no stain like the one I’m hiding now
Never knew no man like the one I been missing
Never knew no love could break love’s vow

Can’t go back to the water’s edge
ain’t no water…
Can’t go back to his arms
ain’t no water…
Can’t go dip beneath the glass surface
ain’t no water…
Can’t dry off in the summer sun

Never knew no dirt didn’t come off in the kitchen
Never knew no stain like the one I’m hiding now
Never knew no man like the one I been missing
Never knew no love could break love’s vow

Now dial the energy way down. Here she is with dobro-/guitarist Doug Cox, in a twosome they call Across the Borderline, performing Butch Hancock‘s “Boxcars.” Again, this does not appear to be an official video: it’s barely a video at all, just a single still photo which gradually fades in from a black background (and eventually fades back out). I think this helps to focus the mind on the lyrics, the shambling-blues rhythm, and the undiluted talent running out of the speakers.

Lyrics (note: these are the original lyrics; BettySoo throws in numerous free-form twists and swirls of her own):

Boxcars
(by Butch Hancock; performance by Across the Borderline)

Well, I gave all my money to the banker this month
Now I got no more money to spend
She smiled when she saw me comin’ through that door
When I left, she said “Come back again”

Well I watched some lonesome boxcar wheels turnin’
down the tracks out of town
And it’s on that lonesome railroad track
I’m gonna lay my burden down

I looked for my little lady in the lost and found
But she had already been claimed
I’m gonna find me a ticket to ride
Through a town that never had no name

Nobody may care where I go tonight
But baby if the truth be told
I’m goin’ down to the railroad tracks
Watch them lonesome boxcars roll

[instrumental break]

I was raised on a farm the first years of my life
And life was pretty good, they say
I’ll probably live to be some ripe old age
If that dirty dog death won’t stay outa my way

This world can take my money and my time
But it sure can’t take my soul
An’ I’m goin’ down to the railroad tracks
Watch them lonesome boxcars roll

There’s some big ol’ Buicks by the Baptist Church
Cadillacs at the Church of Christ
I parked my camel by an ol’ haystack
I’ll be lookin’ for that needle all night

You know there ain’t a gonna be no radial tires
turnin’ down the streets of gold
I’m goin’ down to the railroad tracks
Watch them lonesome boxcars roll

[instrumental break]

Have you ever hear the whistle on a fast freight train
beatin’ out a beautiful tune
If you ever seen the cold blue railroad tracks shinin’
by the light of the moon

If you ever felt the locomotive shake the ground
I know you don’t need to be told
Why I’m goin’ down to the railroad tracks
Watch them lonesome boxcars roll

I know even less about playing or singing music than I do about why music works. But really, that is some stringwork there. And that is some voice.

___________________________

Addendum: Something about “Never Knew No Love” sounded familiar to me… not the lyrics but the actual sound, the music. I might be thinking of early-1990s Melissa Etheridge. “2001,” maybe. Or, no, even more, “Ain’t It Heavy”:

[Below, click Play button to begin Ain’t It Heavy. While audio is playing, volume control appears at left — a row of little vertical bars. This clip is 4:24 long.]