Lisa O’Kane – It Don’t Hurt

“Ain’t Done Nothin'”, the self-penned kiss-off that begins Lisa O’Kane’s It Don’t’ Hurt, is a rocking little middle-finger of a record. “I’m thinkin’ maybe you could use a change of scenery,” she sneers at her one-time paramour. “I’m thinkin’…’bout a million miles from me.” It’s the sort of assertive, instantly catchy song Patty Loveless might once have scored a hit with — and might still, if country radio hadn’t contracted so tightly around such a limited number of artists, sounds and emotions.

It Don’t Hurt has a few touches of Loveless but is actually more of a piece with the likes of Rosanne Cash, Mary Chapin Carpenter, the Judds and Kathy Mattea — all those strong (today’s preference is for “sassy”) women who succeeded on country radio in the late 1980s. She writes smart songs — “I’m Done” conveys an acceptance of what can’t be changed that’s a rare commodity these days — and covers better ones: Ernest Troost’s poignant title track, John Prine’s “Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness”, and Marty Axelrod’s biding-its-time “Got The Car Running” (as in “If he ever takes it out on me again…”). Seated at a variety of keyboards, she sings both her songs and others in a big, full-throated alto that recalls her older sisters in another way: Intimate emotions are usually best expressed intimately.