Singer-songwriter Lissie Maurus lists cigarettes, porches and pie among her musical influences. Normally I might question such a strange assemblage of inspiration, but when you put out a record as flawless and emotive as her five-song debut, Why You Runnin’, it’s hard to question her methods.

Lissie is an unbelievable talent; brilliant, charming and uniquely qualified, and poised to storm the music world like a Kansas tornado. Her sound is reminiscent of artists like Neko Case or Jewel before she began doing Venus razor commercials, but her voice is one of a kind.
The lead track from the album, “Little Lovin’,” hits harder than an ill-tempered stepfather at the bottom of a bottle of Jack Daniels—a kick driven ballad that swells to a full-blown hootenanny of bass, claps and tambourine, outshone only by Lissie’s impassioned wail.

A dissimilar but equally impressive song is “Wedding Bells” in which, accompanied by the gentle strum of acoustic guitar and a chorus of reverb, Lissie laments the loss of a lover. “Everywhere I Go” is also a must-listen, if only to hear the breadth and depth of Lissie’s sorrowful sincerity.

Where some folk albums fall into a rut of melancholy or country lull, “Why You Runnin’” excels. There’s no shortage of reasons to keep listening for the duration of the album, and I wouldn’t expect anything less from this inspired debut that exemplifies the heart of Americana like a Norman Rockwell painting.