Hailing from the back roads of eastern Tennessee, emerges the fresh and bold sound of independent recording artist Tara Leigh Cobble. As an artist full of life, truth, and realness, it's surprising that Tara Leigh's strong vocals and introspective songwriting skills haven't caught the attention of record companies.

With her third indie release, entitled Things You Can't Stop With Your Hands, Tara Leigh seems to have taken the pop/rock genre and tweaked it a little. Sounding vocally similar to Jennifer Knapp, Tara Leigh's songs are Christian radio and even mainstream worthy. Taking a risk, her album was produced without pitch correction, which shows Tara Leigh's ability of generating a powerful voice. Her music contains elements of rock, pop/rock, acappella, acoustic, and even the slow jazz-ballad concepts we witness in some songs.

Opening the album is "White T-Shirt," a song that expresses how God draws us as a whole to Him, even our wild side. The song is full of beaming vocals and insightful lyrics. The album also features slower, ballad-like songs like "I Wonder" and "Every Girl I Know." "Quiet Love Song" is a song highlighting the wonders of Tara Leigh's vocal extremities, sung as acappella. The album's namesake "Things You Can't Stop With Your Hands," a very moving and truthfully real song, is about lost memories and a longing for home. Her album contains hints of those country elements we find in some songs, which isn't surprising given her upbringing. You can find these elements rising in "Here's To Hindsight" and the last song on the album, "Back When (You Used To Adore Me)." "Back When" ends the album with a sort of ballad-jazz-like feel.

Altogether, I found Tara Leigh's new album to be a good start. Tara Leigh's Things You Can't Stop With Your Hands was actually an album that made me smile. It has always stumped me how you can just smile at a song that's blaring back at you. Tara Leigh draws similarities with Derek Webb, Jennifer Knapp, and Bethany Dillon. We can hope to see more progression in her music later on; I'm looking forward to it.

- Review date: 5/13/05, written by Jessica Vander Loop