SUSAN CATTANEO

Little Big Sky

susancattaneo.com

Students at Boston’s Berklee College of Music have a fine teacher in Susan Cattaneo, part-time faculty of the songwriting department. On this EP, she leads a crack Nashville squad through seven pro-built country tunes. Whether stomping (“Let the Music Deliver Me”) or pining (“A Place Called Love”), she places each verse, chorus and bridge exactly where it belongs. Like any master crafter, Cattaneo relies on certain time-honored tricks—pausing before the chorus on the title track, dropping everything but the drums on the “thump, thump, thump” line in “Spare Parts”—but she’s seamless in her execution and spirited in her overall delivery. Some things can’t be taught.