CD Review

A handsome brother-sister pair. Good fashion sense. Great instrumentals. That’s why it's so hard to leave with a bad impression. It's also hard to look down on a fellow Irishman and colleen, even if they are from Maryland, and I'm from the other side of the river in Virginia.

Judd and Maggie’s Subjects is an awkwardly intimate collection of sibling-sung love songs, with just enough imagery to keep it all legal. Between a flickering streetlight, a rung door bell with no one answering, the cold from outside, and the snow falling down, “Snow Song” is a frigid picture of winter. "One Year Past 20" lets Maggie innocently and accurately swoon, "let me sing out of tune because I'm 21 and I have 2 broken hearts." "Story" is a sing-song baby time lullaby, and occasionally the entire record harkens back to the Simon and Garfunkel "I Am a Rock” stuff that still gets radio play. It’s a bit too close for comfort, but the instrumentation leaves room to breathe.