Starr Shines With Striking Vocal Mix

Mary Lou Lord, Jewel, Elliott Smith, Beth Orton--it seems like there’s another folk-pop singer coming out of the woodwork every day. Perhaps that’s why newcomer Garrison Starr, who played the Troubadour on Wednesday, seemed so striking: She actually stood out.

Androgynous-looking in choppy, short hair and trousers, the 23-year-old Mississippi native walked casually onstage when the room was only a quarter full. It didn’t seem like an auspicious beginning. But it quickly became clear that the star of the show was the singer’s stunning voice, which rang with a mix of sweetness, sultriness and crystalline honesty. The sound was so striking that when she broke a string on her acoustic guitar during her first number, you hoped that she would continue a cappella.

Instead, Starr picked up an electric guitar and played several songs from her 1997 debut album, “Eighteen Over Me,” on which her voice sounds deceptively one-dimensional. The highlights--”Grounded” and “Superhero”--are dreamy, don’t-bring-me-down songs about reaching beyond life’s mundane realities. Her standout lyric was a far less idyllic one from “Passing”: “I’m not really angry at the world, just angry at you, you ignorant girl.”

But the best song of the night was “Paper Star.” The bittersweet tune was written by the singer’s friend Neilson Hubbard, and it carried a lyrical maturity and emotional depth that young, promising Garrison Starr hasn’t reached--yet.