The first words on Little Heater, the second solo album from Catherine Irwin, are “Crying/Makes my head hurt/So I don’t care to cry/Fighting/Tore up my good shirt/Leaving me in the dirt/Wishing I would die”. Not unexpected themes for a country record: heartbreak, loss and despair. This particular song, ‘Mockingbird’, was written after said bird was found by Irwin in her house, unmoving and calling at her from her bed, before leaving, and leaving a mess. Irwin uses this experience to turn the bird from animal into a lover, whose “mocking” tones still manage to turn her head, much to Irwin’s own annoyance.

Familiar themes, sure; but we’re dealing with an artist who, it can be argued, first put the alt. into alt. country and created the No Depression movement (just beating Uncle Tupelo to the punch) along with Janet Beveridge Bean as part of Freakwater, releasing two vital albums that defined a generation in the genre, Freakwater in 1989 and 1993’s Feels Like the Third Time. Over time, Freakwater’s output has steadily reduced and the band hasn’t released an album since 2006, but they’ve never split and occasionally play shows together. For someone with such a huge talent it’s something of a surprise that Little Heater is only Irwin’s second solo album, and if this is anything to go by we’ve been missing out on decades of great music. Recorded by Louisville stalwart Tara Jane O’Neil (Rodan/The Sonora Pine), who also provides vocals and instrumentation, Irwin is joined by members of Ida, and Will Oldham, to create what’s on the face of it simply a “trad” record yet played and written with such verve and reverence that it becomes something fresh, new and welcoming – and that’s despite the cloak of misery it’s shrouded in.

That opening track, ‘Mockingbird’, sets the tone for the rest of the record and is the first of a handful that the Bonnie Prince lends his vocal talents to, the highlight of which is ‘To Break Your Heart’, a bluesy shuffle that finds Irwin and Oldham trading the leads; two of the most distinctive voices in the genre on top form and backed by beautiful pedal steel from Marc Orleans, who leaves a lasting impression on Little Heater. Elsewhere, we have classic country leitmotifs and signifiers all across the record: songbirds, sparrows, roads, lightning, bones, broken hearts, darkness all make an appearance but woven into fresh tales rather than become tired clichés; only Irwin, Oldham and Jason Molina really stand apart from other artists at being able to return to that well time and again and not come up empty.

It’s on tracks like ‘The Whole of the Law’ (“I’ve slept with women/With scars on their eyes/I’ve climbed to heaven/On ladder of lies”), slowly unfolding on acoustic guitar and building to a climax on O’Neil’s beautifully played strings, that Irwin’s storytelling really shines, and even when reinterpreting a song like ‘Sinner Saves a Saint’ (written by cartoonist John Callahan) the biblical and theatrical imagery sounds like her own work. Catherine Irwin had already left an indelible mark on the country music scene thanks to her work with Freakwater, but Little Heater goes to show that, years down the line, she’s still got the power to transform the familiar into something new, and has plenty riches to offer us yet.