Jennifer Alvarado’s latest collection of endearing pop rock singles, ‘Songbird: Part One’, is another welcome return to form for the NC based song writer. There’s a marked emphasis on returning to that powerful rock and roll energy on this six track edition. None of that is clearer and more resoundingly emphatic than on the album’s opening piece, ‘Rock This Way’. Here, Alvarado is almost triumphant in both performance and in the way she’s arranged the tune itself. There’s a progression to the piece, the kind of structure that harkens back to a cinematic scene or montage in a movie where the protagonist character is returning to form.
Combining the good old natured heartland rock enthusiasm and pomp with her own measured and eloquent vocal performance that’s particularly impressive for the range she’s able to display, ‘Rock This Way’ becomes a battle cry and anthem that’s old-fashioned but decidedly modern in spirit and performance.