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Had she been a "chantoosie," the late great Ann Sheridan probably sounded much like her contemporary and fellow Texan Cindy Walker: deep, low, sincere, heartfelt (Ann sings in NORA PRENTISS and performs custom Harry Warren-Johnny Mercer marginalia in 1939's NAUGHTY BUT NICE). In a better world Ms. Sheridan would be the automatic choice to play feisty Walker in a biopic. There was a visual resemblance between the two as well as real Texan bravado: Walker the soubrette "chantoosie" famously barged, unscheduled with Mother Walker in tow, into Bing Crosby HQ to introduce her formidable showbiz talents as singer/songwriter. Her special career niche was sorted out soon enough, and Cindy Walker abided as the best and most prolific female country songwriter (her colleagues Felice Bryant, Melba Montgomery and Bonnie Guitar notwithstanding) of her time. She was a fully emancipated competitor in a very tough showbiz ambit ruled by ruthless persons of the opposite gender.Fred Foster at Monument Records coaxed the reclusive Walker out of performing retirement in 1964 to lay down these authentic and historically important Nashville sides. Unlike many songwriters, Walker is fully capable of winningly performing and selling her own compositions with wise understatement and lack of drama, letting her better songs sell themselves straightforwardly: "Hey, Mr. Bluebird" resembles a happy Bonnie Guitar lilt, "Blue Canadian Rockies" emerges in waltztime radiance and simplicity, and two of Walker's deeper ballads, "You don't know me" and especially "Dusty skies" (an enduring Dust Bowl musical tragedy), will just slay you. This is country songwriting--simple profundities delivered straight from the heart--and throaty singing that is compellingly honest and direct. It's not accidental that performers ranging from Bob Wills to Eddy Arnold, Roy Orbison, Ray Charles and Willie Nelson lined up to perform Ms. Walker's songs of phenomenal quality, and that eager performance queue continues to form. Ironically, this legendarily emancipated woman's most convincing reinterpreters have customarily been musically sensitive males, often songcrafters themselves, who gravitate to the Walker songbook reverently and magnetically.