'Blacktop Road," the title track from Angela Easterling's second CD, is an infectious piece of country-rock, propelled by a driving beat and a catchy chorus. But when you listen to the lyrics, you get a more downbeat message: The singer's family farm has been torn apart to make way for a paved highway.

What makes Easterling's song doubly compelling is the fact that it's true. The farm in Greer, S.C., that had belonged to her mother's family since 1791 was subdivided so a road could go through it. And, as she sings: "They thought they'd be friendly, maybe throw us a bone / They slapped our family name on that blacktop road."

Easterling, joined by guitarist Brandon Turner, will bring her heartfelt brand of Americana music to the Ukrainian American Cultural Center in Whippany Friday night.

Though all her lyrics are written in the first person, not every song is autobiographical. For example, "The Picture" tells the haunting story of an older woman who finds a photograph of a lynched black man among her late father's possessions. That discovery forces the woman to examine her father in a new light.

That song is based on the experience of a friend of Easterling's aunt, Easterling says.

"She had found that picture, and she wasn't able to ask her father about the story behind it," the singer says. "I wanted to do a song about racism, and that story let me frame it in a personal way. I thought it made it more powerful by telling it in the first person."

Her musical style falls squarely in the nexus of country, folk and rock that has come to be called "Americana." She admits it's a genre that is sometimes hard for people to understand.

"I started out doing the folk thing, but that wasn't me," she says. "Then I tried country, and that didn't work either."

Easterling's role models as a musicians are The Indigo Girls.

"I just loved them in high school and in college, and I still love them," she says. Another inspiration is Emmylou Harris, "especially her wonderful albums from the 1970s. They were so eclectic. She'd have a Beatles song, a Carter Family song and a Merle Haggard song all on the same album."

Easterling's first CD (not counting a couple of collections of demos released in the early 2000s) was 2007's "Earning Her Wings."

"We recorded that in Los Angeles. It was still Americana, but it was a little more traditional country," she says.

The songs on "Blacktop Road" were written after Easterling moved back to South Carolina to help her family deal with the problems on the family farm.

"These songs are more complex and more personal," she says.

She also decided to pay tribute to her family by recording "Stars Over the Prairie," a song written by her great-grandfather, Gene Easterling.

"He wrote it for a B-movie Western in the '40s," she says. "So we recorded it the way it would have been done back then. That was a lot of fun." (The only other song on "Blacktop Road" that she didn't write is a plaintive cover of Neil Young's "Helpless.")

Easterling admits the music business can be difficult for an emerging artist.

"It's a crowded field, and there are a lot of great songwriters out there," she says. "I try to distinguish myself by being myself and telling my story."

Music made from the heart and home

Easterling finds inspiration for songs in her own backyard

 By Mary Alice Blackwell | Daily Progress correspondent Charlottesville, VA
Published: August 13, 2010

There are lots and lots of good singers.

But sometimes, in order to get noticed, you have to have something to sing about.

Angela Easterling found some inspiration in her own back yard.

Easterling grew up in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her mother’s family farm, which dated back to 1791, had been home to seven generations.

But, as for many farmers, the times were a changing for Easterling’s family.

Progress trumped potatoes.

A road was cut through the property. She used her family’s struggle to hold on to the homeland to create her second album, “BlackTop Road.”

She calls it a personal album.

“There is so much of my family in it,” she noted on her Web site. “The themes are family and home and looking for a home.

“I think there is also a theme of where the past, present and future intersect and have an effect on each other. Sometimes it seems like the future is trying to destroy the past. But we can’t escape the past; it still haunts us.”

Her voice, which has been described as everything from a “dynamite honky-tonk singer” to “Steve Earle, if he was reborn as a girl,” has something to say.

This Sunday, she will sing her story at the Village Concerts in Palmyra.

“As much as I love writing, a song doesn’t seem real until you have shared it with others,” she added. “Then it takes on a life of its own and doesn’t belong to me anymore, it belongs to everyone.

“I feel so blessed and fortunate to be able to make my way through the world by sharing my music and my stories.”

Her debut album, “Earning Her Wings,” was named an Americana Pick of the Year by Smart Choice Music. “BlackTop Road” followed in July 2009.

Her second CD added a little more oomph, thanks to producer Will Kimbrough, who has worked with the likes of Rodney Crowell and Jimmy Buffett. “BlackTop Road” debuted in the Americanatop 40 for airplay and was named a top pick in both Oxford American and Country Weekly.

“I produced Angela Easterling’s record, but all I had to do is show up for class and play along,” noted Kimbrough, who filled in as a musician as well as a producer. “She is a powerful, focused artist who has done her homework - rock ’n’ roll, country, bluegrass, literature and French pop.”

That’s right. She’s a little bit country; a little bit folk … with a little bit of alt thrown in.”

And don’t forget: She’s got a personal story to tell.

Easterling was selected as a New Folk finalist at 2009 Kerrville Folk Festival and offered an official showcase at this year’s Americana Music Conference.

You may be more familiar with her sound than you think. She has been featured in commercials for Southwestern Bell, while Animal Planet has made the most of several of her songs on its TV series “Horsepower.”

On Sunday, Easterling will be joined by another South Carolina native - one of her bandmates, Brandon Turner.