Without some finesse, hopeful music can come off as cloying. Anne E. DeChant doesn't always avoid the trouble spot on her sixth album. The woman who lost her trailer to a twister in the finger-plucked country-folk tune "Home to Me" is tired of your condescending tone: "That tin and vinyl siding ain't much of a house, and we're all bums, drunks, dumb, and always broke." If it sounds like blue-collar-country territory, you're on the right track: The former Odd Girl Out member moved to Nashville a few years ago. Many of Swing's songs border on corny, but DeChant manages to make them feel somewhat alive, despite their twangy and maudlin overtones. One person's sentimentality is another's cheese log. Swing straddles that fine line. — Chris Parker
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