Whitney Rose

McGonigel’s Mucky Duck presents Whitney Rose.

A sultry country classicist with a tremble in her voice, Whitney Rose is partial to the magisterial gestures of the 1950s and 1960s. And so for her stately second album, “Heartbreaker of the Year” (Cameron House), she enlisted the Mavericks, keepers of that era’s flame, for backup duty, and its frontman, the silky Raul Malo, as producer.

Apart from two covers, Ms. Rose wrote all the songs here, and she is gifted with the eccentric detail: On “The Last Party,” a sweet Dusty Springfield-esque waltz, she implores friends to “go cover every jukebox, smash all the guitars,” and on the title track, she muses, “You must have taken a class in fading away.”

Ms. Rose can be a slightly reserved singer, but it’s in those moments that the Mavericks come in handy, playing vintage country with high viscosity. And when Mr. Malo steps in to duet, like on “The Last Party” or the Ronettes cover “Be My Baby,” the two achieve a melancholy twinkle much like the one between George Jones and Tammy Wynette. – THE NEW YORK TIMES

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