One look at this native’s MySpace page will confirm what you can hear in her voice on this, her debut CD: she appreciates the obliquely cutting poesy of Tori Amos, the deathly conversational phrasing Joni Mitchell is famous for, and the obsessively confessional tone of Fiona Apple (not to mention her love for moody, pillowy jazz piano chords). But vocally, she’s a dead ringer for Natalie Merchant, who isn’t listed. So you certainly can’t accuse Kelcy Mae of bad taste on these 10 thoughtful originals, and you can’t accuse her of dilettantism. She sounds like she came by all these influences naturally. It’s only experience she lacks; she hasn’t found a way to forge these influences into a signature style yet. Too often on The Times Compiled you can hear her gallery of Lilith Fair headliners poking their individual heads out for just a brief moment, a phrase or two, to announce themselves.

Make no mistake: this is an impressive debut, well-crafted and professional. And Mae’s lyrical noodlings, unlike a lot of works in this genre, occasionally strike gold, or at least move her past the poses. (“You leave your notebook locked away / Like a Daniel in your den / But can your words tame lions?”) But tellingly, it’s when she drops the mask and steps out to make a universal emotional statement that the elements all come together, such as “Dear Baton Rouge (The River Jordan),” in which she asks the Mississippi for some mythic healing, or the near-jaunty “Swingin’ Low Without a Chariot”: “You don’t believe in everything you hear / So why should I be any different?”