Bramble Rose (2002)

You'll hear Lucinda Williams' wheels on a well-paved road, Sheryl Crow's Stones throwing, and Emmylou Harris' breathy balladeering on Bramble Rose, the debut by North Carolina country-pop thrush Tift Merritt. But if the staging feels a tad calculated for the Austin City Limits set, the songs — all Merritt's own — show some serious talent, while her remarkable voice, more pristine, in fact, than all the above, transcends the merely pretty. Potentially prescient song title: ''When I Cross Over.''