Dawn Kinnard made a name for herself around State College by playing bars in that area with… Dawn Kinnard made a name for herself around State College by playing bars in that area with the band Dusk to Dawn. Now she’s on her own, and Pitt’s campus is her next target.

On her self-titled solo CD, Kinnard puts her sometimes overwhelmingly strong voice against a backdrop of bluesy melodies to great effect. All at once, she sounds like a lovely combination of Lucinda Williams, Sheryl Crow and pre-“Intuition” Jewel.

On “Blue Rain,” Kinnard sings of her lover escaping the monotonous life and relationship they’re stuck in, singing, “I just sit in my big hard lazy chair/Cause I know why you’re running darling/And I don’t care/You got this crazy dream you gotta follow to the end/Yeah but what do you do when you find there’s no end?”

The haunting guitar in “Wires in the Sky” will send shivers up and down your spine, as will Kinnard’s emotional lyrics. “And wires in the sky shine so bright/I came here thinking I could make things right/Everything I do I see right through/Face shows anything I do/I’m guilty/I don’t know why/Yeah I’m guilty/I don’t know why.”

And on “Pictures,” Kinnard bares her soul against a soft Wurlitzer and mournfully strummed guitar. She sings of a dying relationship in which the man is alienating himself from his lover, preparing to cut it off. She evokes stark images in listeners’ minds, telling us, “Piles of pictures, letters from you/It’s all so easy, impossible to see through/Heard your footsteps down the stairs/Sit alone on the couch, nobody cares/Your hair grows wavy and long/The last days were lost, words of songs.”

Kinnard consistently uses her soulful, blues-tinged voice and emotionally driven lyrics to amazingly good effect. When she comes to Pitt this Saturday, prepare to be blown away by her compelling voice and intense emotions.

Dawn Kinnard will be playing at the Women Who Rock Festival this Sat., Oct. 18 from 2:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. on the William Pitt Union Patio.