On Cowboy In My Bed, Avril mounts up for a hard ride across country's wide open continent -- from the plains of pain to the lands of love.

Neatly balanced between raunchy, bluesy rockers and mellow ballads, the 14 tracks are laced with uninhibited emotion and romantic perception.

Avril infuses it with all the verve of a sparkling live show and bares her soul in songs like Ticking Of The Clock, a stirring wake-up call to career women everywhere.

But the carefree life can become a lonely dead-end awaiting women who leave love and children too late:

'The ticking of the clock is what every woman hears
The ticking of the clock is what every woman fears
I have to make a choice before the key turns in the lock
I can't escape the ticking of the clock.'

The disc is brilliantly polished by Avril's co-producers Greg Macainsh and Chris Corr, using premier musicians like Sam Lemann (guitars), James Black (piano), Garret Costigan (pedal steel), Gary Young (drums) and Paul Gadsby (bass).

Rich arrangements create an American-quality sound all too rare on Australian country albums.

An excellent selection of material provides pace and variety for Avril's awesome vocal range. She red-lines the throttle on What I Used To Get Up To and the bawdy title track, then soft pedals on Far From The Storm, Love Won't Come and Good News Bad, beautiful ballads of loss and longing.

Top-shelf songwriting oozes from the grooves, by Ross Wilson, Russell Morris, ex-Dingo Kerryn Tolhurst, and the Avril/Macainsh combination.

Recorded independently in Melbourne by Paul Petran's Music Deli on ABC Radio, Leslie Avril Live was picked up by Larrikin/Festival.

On 16 full-value tracks, Avril shows why she strides the stage as a towering talent, charging full-bore through country blues, rockabilly and classic weepers with a band "as hot as a blowtorch", as one reviewer said.

The many sides of Leslie Avril are showcased as she changes vocal style to deliver each number with affinity both for the rhythm and the songwriter's vision.

In Sweet Nuthins she pays homage to Brenda Lee, one of her idols. Tangled Up In Love becomes an evocative refrain for a one-night stand that wasn't meant to get serious, while He Thinks I Still Care and Break It To Me Gently (another salute to Lee) are ballads to wrench the heart.

Ross Wilson's Rockabilly Woman reveals a singer without peer as a rockabilly interpreter in Australia and Randy Newman's bluesy Guilty bares the tortured soul of a lonely lover.

The album also contains three of Avril's volcanic showstoppers: the assertive classic I'm A Woman; a feisty and funny rendition of Johnny Cash Song; and a brazen Trashy Woman that sizzles with lusty lyrics:

'They say opposites attract but I don't agree, I want a man who's as horny as me, I'm the sort of woman who's a little on the trashy side'.

No wonder the live audience went wild.

Champagne & Desolation is her debut album, produced by Gerry Hale of bluegrass exponents Uncle Bill, Paul Kelly's "other" band. 

The 15 tracks include five co-written by Avril.

Desert Sky, the opening track with its distinctive didgeridoo, creates an Australian country rock feel that weaves through the whole album. Prowling Around and Maria Muldaur's I'm A Woman are typically saucy, crowd-pleasing Avril.

The standout is the title track, emptied straight from a bottle of scotch. A candid reflection on loneliness, desperation, and life in a revolving door oiled by booze.

With its sparse arrangement -- the singer on piano and a haunting harmonica -- this number also revealed Avril's early potential as a lyricist:

 
'And it's champagne and desolation, every drinker knows, 
That wherever there's an angel the devil surely goes
The laughing with the crying, the living with the dying,
Champagne and desolation breaks my heart again.'