Kim Carson has great taste in country music. This much you know just looking at the track listing on her latest release. What you learn upon hearing the fourth track is that Carson also possesses a voice that fits seamlessly in the tradition she celebrates.

The song is “I’m Not Lisa,” by Jessi Colter. But that the world were full of women like Jessi Colter! Muse and comforter of the Outlaw movement, Colter sounded like she’d been stranded at a truck stop in 1977 after a journey from deepest Appalachia circa 1907. Carson’s rendition of the song is a sincere tribute, and the album unfurls in a similar tone.

An homage this faithful ultimately leads you to re-appreciate the originals more than the update, as the present treatment rarely strays from the script. And while this is worth a spin on tracks like the duet with John Evans playing Conway to Carson’s Loretta, sometimes you lose sight of the interpreter. A few songs are a little too sweet (“Teddy Bear Song”) or so close to their model that you don’t learn anything new about Carson or the songwriter (“You’re Looking at Country,” another Loretta Lynn track).

There’s sufficient love in the effort to make this a great sample of Carson’s skill and the richness of her influences. She closes the album with versions of Roy Clark’s “Thank God & Greyhound” and Kris Kristofferson’s “Why Me.” On an album of good selections, Carson picks the right closers and does them great justice, investing each with all the emotion and wisdom they deserve.