1 Simply
2 Last Night Was a Big Rain
3 500x (The Train Song)
4 Song for My Father
5 Equal Scary People
6 This Is a Man's World
7 Meant to Be
8 Why Don't You
9 I Wish I Were a Princess
10 Under the Sycamore Tree

From Amazon.com

Equal Scary Cover

 Album Rating: (4 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: VERY GOOD AUSTIN STYLE COUNTRY MUSIC.

Originally recorded in 1988, this is Sarah Hickman's first album. It is 38 minutes long. It was originally released on an independent label, and then Warner Brothers did a major label release of the ablum. After that is has been reissued a number of times on different labels. I have the Warner Brothers version and the sound quality is very good, especially for an indie. I cannot say how the sound quality is on other versions.

This is your basic late eighties/early nineties Texas Hill Country style of country music. It's country music without a heavy twang and with a little folk and rock mixed. It is nothing like the pop country of today.

The songs and the music on this CD are very interesting and well written. They are a little bit light in parts, especially I Wish I Were a Princess. Overall it is a very pleasant album to listen to throughout. There are not any clunkers on it.

I was debating whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. It is a very a nice CD throughout but one that might deserve only 3 stars (which isn't bad). But, I bumped it up a star because it so much better than the contemporary pop country that is being release today by people who are taking basic overworked pop and providing a twang to it...the music recorded by people in ridiculous cowboy hats and who have never been on a horse before.

Freaky cover, though.

Equal Scary Cover

 Album Rating: (4 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: VERY GOOD AUSTIN STYLE COUNTRY MUSIC.

Originally recorded in 1988, this is Sarah Hickman's first album. It is 38 minutes long. It was originally released on an independent label, and then Warner Brothers did a major label release of the ablum. After that is has been reissued a number of times on different labels. I have the Warner Brothers version and the sound quality is very good, especially for an indie. I cannot say how the sound quality is on other versions.

This is your basic late eighties/early nineties Texas Hill Country style of country music. It's country music without a heavy twang and with a little folk and rock mixed. It is nothing like the pop country of today.

The songs and the music on this CD are very interesting and well written. They are a little bit light in parts, especially I Wish I Were a Princess. Overall it is a very pleasant album to listen to throughout. There are not any clunkers on it.

I was debating whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. It is a very a nice CD throughout but one that might deserve only 3 stars (which isn't bad). But, I bumped it up a star because it so much better than the contemporary pop country that is being release today by people who are taking basic overworked pop and providing a twang to it...the music recorded by people in ridiculous cowboy hats and who have never been on a horse before.

Freaky cover, though.

Texas darling

 Album Rating: (4 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: Sara Hickman amassed a following in her native Texas with an early version of this debut CD. "Equal Scary People" possessed equal parts charm (500 X the Train Song), delicacy ("Simply") and sheer personality ("I Wish I Were A Princess"). The resulting mix of folk and pop suggested Joni Mitchell with a sense of humor, or a country music star without the pretense. ("Simply" could have as easily charted Country as it did Adult Contemporary.)

Another highlight of "Equal Scary People" was Sara's cover of James Brown's "This is a Man's World." She completely transforms the meaning of the song, and made her an artist to watch. Her career followed many of the same paths...mixing styles of music to folk while imprinting her personality on the songs themselves. "Equal Scary People" is just one of many excellent Sara Hickman albums.

Good! Very Good!

 Album Rating: (4 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: "Big Rain" and "Song for My Father" are the best tunes. This artist can sing fast and slow songs with great skill and sensitivity. Hickmann is a smart and witty musician, and well worth trying out.

Exceptional folk-pop album debut

 Album Rating: (4 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: I took a gamble buying this Sara Hickman debut album after reading a favorable review in a Southwest Airlines in-flight magazine. It was a gamble that paid big dividends. From the opening cut, "Simply," a lofty, beautifully fingerpicked love song that lacks the cliches so common to the genre ("We can't be one, but two is fine with me."), to the closer, "Under the Sycamore Tree," the album is highlighted by Sara's strong songwriting, her achingly sweet voice, and deft acoustic guitar work. "Last Night Was a Big Rain," once performed solo by Sara on "The Tonight Show," is a nice throwback to Country music's folk roots. Along the same lines is "500X (The Train Song)," a song that, along with "Last Night" would have fit well on the playlists of country music radio stations (if country music had not become a parody of itself and stubbornly refused to recognize its folk roots). Sara shines on solo acoustic ballads like "Song for my Father" and an unusual but well done acoustic cover of James Brown, "It's a Man's World." She changes tempo on the upbeat, rhythmically adventurous "Equal Scary People," complete with humourous chatter that sounds like it was recorded at a party. "Why Don't You" is a slow ballad driven by Sara's guitar, pedal steel, high hat and aching for a boy who no longer wants her. I rated this album four stars instead of the five because of songs like "I Wish I Were a Princess" (one of only two songs NOT penned by Sara) that, in my opinion, did not work. Overall, an impressive debut from an eclectic artist who doesn't get much deserved radio airplay because she isn't easy to categorize: Is she folk? Is she pop? Is she country? Is she rock?