This uncommonly mature 21-year-old singer-songwriter's Nonesuch debut balances the warm-hearted with the cold-blooded. Tell Me is a stunningly forthright 11-song set that addresses late-night longing, serial heartbreak, and intoxicatingly dangerous liaisons conducted in dimly lit barrooms or roadside motels. By the end, the only heart intact is Mayfield's own. It's as if she'd stripped the sentimentality and ruefulness from a bunch of classic country songs, leaving only stark emotion. The Black Keys' singer and guitarist Dan Auerbach, who produced and engineered Tell Me at his Easy Eye Sound System studio in Akron, Ohio, matches Mayfield's candor with eerily minimal, brilliantly constructed tracks that keep her mesmerizing, unadorned voice front and center.
