Steel drivers, snake handlers and Satan would be a good alternative title for the latest offering from this alt-country act. In wonderful southern Gothic style, every song evokes a certain mild horror that grows more intense with scrutiny. You really get the sense that singer Melissa Swingle must be haunted by something -- there's such desperation, such pain in her voice. This desperate resignation is the true spirit of country, and Trailer Bride has is down pat. Take the opening track, "Work on the Railroad" -- in which an indigent woman seeks a job driving steel for the railroad -- as an example. You really feel that if the railroad guy doesn't hire her (which he doesn't) there will be nothing left for her to do but "lay down on the rail and die". The most evocative song on the CD is "Clermont Hotel," in which we hear about a woman "standing 6 feet tall in high heel shoes, look out boy she's lookin' at you." We're never told what kind of horrible spell she'll cast on us if we stay, but our imagination is working overtime. Trailer Bride combines imaginative, haunting songwriting with spare-but-effective country instrumentation -- a little slide-guitar here, a little "fancy" guitar there, a little mouth organ here, a little saw there, all underpinned with thumping stand-up bass and shuffling drums -- to produce a true gem of new American folk music.