CD review: the Low Anthem, "Smart Flesh

  When you really are in the mood to “listen” to music put on a Low Anthem record. That is to say, don’t put it on as background music or when you are partying with friends. It’s not that the Rhode Island band plays overly serious music, but it is music that seriously needs your full attention to be appreciated.
  “Smart Flesh” is the follow-up to their hugely successful second album, “Oh My God, Charlie Darwin,” and continues the band’s trip into the ethereally intricate calm. Yes, they do break out occasionally, but “Smart Flesh” was recorded in an abandoned pasta factory in Providence, and the ghostly beautiful sounds of acoustic guitar, oboe, organ, and the like ring and echo off its empty walls.
  This is immediately apparent on the opening track, the haunting “Ghost Woman Blues.” “Apothecary Love,” one of my favorite songs here, sounds like James Taylor meets Neil Young, with its lilting country melody.
  The blending of voices of Ben Knox Miller, Jeff Prystowsky, Jocie Adams, and Mat Davidson is what really sets the band apart. And each is a talented musician, playing multiple instruments – Adams, for instance, plays oboe, the crotales, and even electric bass.
  Check out the multiple oboe instrumental “Wire.” On “I’ll Take Out Your Ashes,” plucking banjo mandolin backs the singular voice of Knox Miller singing as an old man: “For time just ain’t no healer, with your ashes sittin’ there/I know you have been counting on me/Ever since your sad cremation day/I scanned all your Alzheimer’s poetry for all that I wished that it would say/It’s a sad and guilty feeling/Since I did not take out your ashes/Whatever I was fearing, never came to passing.”
  Put on your headphones to listen to the hushed “Love and Alter” and the title track for a real sonic treat.
As stated, the band breaks out and rocks on a pair of tunes, the 9/11-inspired “Boeing 737” (opening line: “I was in the air when the towers came down/ In a bar on the 84th floor”) and a raucous guitar and organ “Hey, All You Hippies.”

CD review: Lucinda Williams, "Blessed"

  I’ll just come right out and say it: This is the best Lucinda Williams album since “Essence.” The songs on “Blessed,” her 10th studio album, are inspired, varied and contain some of her best writing in years. It’s an emotional album, with songs about a spectrum of loss and love, sung with depth and played with both subletly and with fire.
The album opener, “Buttercup,” tells a lover goodbye, with a nasty sneer and an electric guitar and organ backing.
  The next two songs, “Copenhagen” and “Born to Be Loved,” are softer in heart and in tempo. The former mourns the loss of a friend from afar, while the latter is a nice, slow blues ballad. The lyrics are simple: “You weren’t born to be mistreated/And you weren’t born to be misguided/You were born to be loved /You were born to be loved.” It reminds me a lot of songs like “I Envy the Wind” from “Essence,” where she repeats phrases and feelings for emphasis.
  “Seeing Black,’’ written to Vic Chestnutt, who committed suicide on Christmas Day 2009 is, excuse the pun, a killer. Like “Drunken Angel” – which was written about the demise of musician and friend Blaze Foley on her acclaimed “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road” album (see Page 11) – “Seeing Black” is rife with not only sadness but an anger directed at the man for leaving life too early.
“Soldier’s Song,” sung to perfection in Lucinda’s tired drawl, is written from the perspective of a soldier overseas, with lyrical images that trade off between the tragic life in combat and thoughts of his family back home: “I hear echoes of shots/Baby’s only thinkin’ sweet thoughts /Why the hell did they send me here to fight?/Baby kisses my picture and turns off the light.” It’s a poignant reminder of what some families are currently going through.
  The album, in general, has some nice guitar flourishes. Redemption song “Blessed” is sparked by some crisp electric playing and “Ugly Truth” offers some tasty licks.
  The gospel-ish “Convince Me,” features a soulful organ and searing guitar, and the closing love song, “Kiss Like Your Kiss,” is a perfect ending to a superb emotionally wrought album.
  One more note: If you get the deluxe version of “Blessed,” you get a second set of the songs, stripped down to their bare bones. Williams dubbed these “The Kitchen Tapes,” just her voice and her guitar. Some of the songs, including the opener, “Buttercup,’’ a rocker on the album, is really great in its skeletal form. It’s worth the extra, minor investment to purchase them as well.

CD review: Iron and Wine, "Kiss Each Other Clean"

  In our last CD review, of the new Decemberists album, I wondered how the band's longtime fans would react to their new sound. Well, I can ask the same question here, with Iron and Wine's latest release, "Kiss Each Other
Clean."
   Originally, Iron and Wine was Sam Beam, solo acoustic folkster. He built a fanbase around his hushed vocals and soft sound. Band members were added and world beat flavorings were introduced for the next pair of albums, "Woman King" and "The Shepard's Dog." The hushed vocals were now enveloped by a swirling, churning beats. Iron and Wine became critic darlings and the fanbase grew and grew. In fact, this is where I came in. "Woman King," to me, was dazzling.
  And that brings us to "Kiss Each Other Clean," in which the band, and especially its leader Beam breaks out and offers some new surprises.
  The first surprise is that I can finally understand his lyrics. I loved "Woman King" mostly for the music and mostly because I couldn't make out what Beam was whispering. On the new album, the vocals are out front. On the opener, "Walking Far From Home," he sings: I was walking far from home/And I found your face mingled in the crowd/Saw a boat-full of believers/Sail off talking too loud, talking too loud." I didn't have to look those lyrics up; I could actually hear them!
  The other surprise is that the songs are a lot more accessible. I wouldn't call them pop songs, but they are certainly more catchy than his past works. He still is offering up his takes on love and faith, and some of the lyrics are actually quite dark. But then there's "Tree By the River," which opens with the line "Marianne, do you remember the tree by the river when we were 17." It almost sounds like a line from a Beach Boys song!
  The tunes continue to have a world of influences. Touches of gospel, blues, world beat are weaved through the songs. On "Monkeys Uptown," percussion, electronic sounds, echoing guitar and marimba percolate under Beam's lyrics. A toy flute wanders amid blasts of heavy fuzz of electric guitar in the haunting "Rabbit Will Run." Blasts of clarinet punch through the funk beat of "Big Burned Hand.'' Beam litters the album with ear candy -- fuzzed-out vocals, funked-up bass lines, organs, wind instruments, and electronica of all sorts.
  It all sounds interesting, if not memorable. But by album's end, I start to grow weary. I really am wishing the band would play one song without the bells and whistles. I just kind of need a break.
  I don't long for the good old days, but a reminder every once in while wouldn't hurt.

NPR concert of new album

CD review: the Decemberists, "The King Is Dead"

   My 17-year-old daughter and I both love the Decemberists, but I suspect for different reasons. She loves their wildly dramatic flair, their old-world story songs, and that British tone. I love all that too, but what gets me is the band's sound -- rock guitars mixing with banjo and other assorted cachophony-inducing instruments, the minor-chord melodies.
  It will be interesting to see how some Decemberists fans will take to "The King Is Dead," the band's superb sixth studio album, because it literally drops all the fancy pretensions of the recent past and really gets back to its stripped-down Americana roots.
  The album falls somewhere between early Neil Young-era folk-rock and a '90s REM jangle (Peter Buck actually plays on some cuts). Throw in some Gillian Welch backing vocals on eight of 10 songs and you've got an album with an alt-country feel.
  "Don't Carry It Off," the first song, showcases the new (old) sound: Hard-strummed acoustic guitar, strong drumbeat and harmonica, and Buck adds some tasty mandolin. The song could have right at home on Young's "Harvest" album. Gillian's voice blends beautifully with Colin Meloy's, which in this context loses that "British" accent.
  On "Calamity Song," Buck's 12-string rings out, bringing the REM feel to the forefront. A pedal steel and harmonica ring out in "Rise to Me." The Neil Young references keep coming back to me. "Rox in the Box" may be the closest thing to a Decemberists story song, about the toil of old-time miners: "And you won’t make a dime/On this gray Granite Mountain Mine/Of dirt you’re made and to dirt you will return." The songs are creative and feel very true to their sound.
  The album's single, "Down By the Water" is probably the most rocking tune here. It's got that REM feel and the Colin/Gillian vocals adds a great tension. "June Hymn" is a nice, acoustic ballad as is "Dear Avery," which closes the album.
  It will be interesting to see how this album is received by true fans of the band and where the Decemberists will go next. But for this listener, "The King Is Dead" is a playlist keeper.

The Decemberists with Gillian Welch on Conan

CD review: Lori McKenna, "Lorraine"

  It's easy to hear the appeal of Lori McKenna's songs to country music stars and fans: the trials and tribulations, thoughts and actions of her everyday characters are those that fill countless country songs.
 Yet I certainly didn't come to her music from a country music angle. I first heard her singing "Fireflies" on the disc "Respond," a compilation of songs by female folk singer-songwriters, and followed her with delight through the superlative "Bittertown."
  That album is what caught the attention of country-music queen Faith Hill, and gave Lori her brief shot at stardom. Lori toured with Faith, appeared on "Oprah" with her, and garnered her a deal with Warner  Nashville which produced "Unglamorous," a nice, if overly produced, group of country-leaning tunes. And while the attention was certainly warranted, it left me wanting my Lori back again.
  And, luckily for me, she came back.
  Her new album, "Lorraine," is out Jan. 25 and it is everything I hoped for. According to her, the album is named after her mother, though she admits that her real name is Lorraine as well, so it may be just about as much about herself.
  And as with her songs of the past, you deeply feel the pain, the uncertainty, the love that her characters feel in her lyrics.
  She opens with "The Luxury of Knowing" (which Keith Urban actually sings as a bonus track on his new album), about the ups and downs of a couple's relationship:

You know that I like to dance/ But only when I’m dancing with you/ You know I must be bad at lying/ Because I’ve only ever told you the truth.
Just when I think you’re a hurricane/ You freeze right over and all that rain/ Turns to ice and your whole world just starts snowing/ I don’t have the luxury of knowing
  
These lyrics just flow out of her. They could be about me, about you, about people we know. And her voice and delivery is so convincing of both the ache and love. It is why when you hear Faith Hill or Keith Urban sing her songs, well, it's just not the same.
  The title track, "Lorraine," may be the most personal song of all here as she sings about her relationship with her mother, who died when Lori was small. The opening lines are so descriptive and wonderful:

The kitchen smells like orange peels/ Her stomach turns like a spinning wheel/ She puts the baby down in a little seat/ You should rest now mama you should eat/ 
It ain't right you've been working all day and all us kids getting in your way/ So she goes to bed as soon as the kitchen's clean/ And that don't mean a thing to you but it does to me.

 Other great songs include "You Get a Love Song," which starts soft but turns into one of the few rocking songs on the album, and "Buy This Town," which Lori described in concert as a song she wrote in her head while driving her kids back and forth through her town to school multiple times in the course of a day.
 There's also a lot more piano on this album than on her past ones. "If He Tried" has with a delicate keyboard intro and "Rocket Science" is pretty much just her voice and the piano (there's some atmospheric guitar and backing vocals that add to the song's beauty).
My favorite song  on the album is "Sweet Disposition," an incredibly soulful and sad tune about someone who has lost her way but trying to find their way back:

My mother left me a wedding band/ And impossible shoes to fill/ Something I’ve always tried to do/ But I know I never will.
If you ask my children about me/ I wish in their brief description/ They’d say I love them with a true heart and a sweet disposition.

Wow. If this stuff doesn't make you cry, I don't know what will. This is the Lori we know and love.

CD reviews: Mike & Ruthy, Kate Redgate, Deadly Gentlemen

Mike & Ruthy, “Million to One”

  We first took notice of Mike Merenda and Ruth Ungar-Merenda when their previous band the Mammals covered Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” as a stripped-down, slowed-down folk blues. Now out on their own as a duo they call Mike & Ruthy, the husband-and-wife team have released “Million to One,’’ an album of rockin’ folk tunes – or as we think of them, folkin’ rock tunes.
  The title, we guess, has something to do with the odds of the album actually coming out since it was funded by Kickstarter donations. But while the odds of making the album might have been long, the chance of fans liking it is a sure thing. The standout track is “Covered,” a blues rocker with the pair sharing lead vocals.
   Harmonies on the album are killer. They especially shine atop the walking bass and fiddle tune “As My Eyes Run Wild.” Those harmonies are backed by bassist Jose Ayerve, drummer Craig Santiago, and others on fiddle and pedal steel, adding to the organic sound. “Be the Boss” has Mike singing in early electric Dylan; “Who’s Who” is a fun mishmash of crazy vignettes; and “On the Road” showcases Ruthy’s gorgeous vocals on a song about band life: “Up one highway and down the next/finding banks that’ll cash our checks/smilin’ in the rear view mirror as another good town disappears/oh don’t you want to go on the road.” With this band? Yeah, that sounds like fun.
www.mikeandruthy.com

Kate Redgate “Nothing Tragic”

  You get the feeling that with a little help, Kate Redgate’s songs would be right at home with the Nashville cats. Kate grew up in the Midwest and is now a full-blown New Englander. Similar to Lori McKenna, she’s a mom who has a calling to play music, though her sound is more straight-ahead country than Lori’s.
  “Into the Blues” rocks its country sound with help from drummer Zach Field and bassist Mike Miskis, with additional support from the great Kevin Barry on electric guitar and Tom West on organ.
  You can hear glimpses of Kate’s life stories in her lyrics: some hard times but always filled with resolve to keep on persevering. On the title track she sings “When your house is on fire you don’t think about what your next move will be/you grab the kids and you all jump out/run as far away as can be/when I said goodbye to you it was all that I could do/to pull these stakes out of the ground/it got a little messy here but you can rest assured my dear there’s nothing tragic here at all.”
  With songs such as “Walkin’ a Fine Line” and “Mississippi Moon” you can just picture Kate up on a honky-tonk bar stage somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon line in front of a crowd of appreciatively dancing country fans.
www.kateredgate.com

Deadly Gentlemen, “Carry Me to Home”

  You will either love or hate this album depending on how you feel about your bluegrass being mixed with rock and rap. Greg Liszt, the banjo player of Crooked Still, leads this foursome in some innovative – sometimes jarring – bluegrassy numbers. The tunes are mostly standards that have been reworked into new songs. The playing is virtuoso and the ideas are creative. The group – Stash Wyslouch on guitar, Mike Barnett on fiddle, Dominick Leslie on mandolin, and Sam Grisman on double bass – no doubt has fun, and the lyrics for such songs as “Police” (based on traditional song “Policeman”: “Drink my liquor with a pancake cold/Can a man make silver?/Can a man make gold?/You don’t need to be mad to need a method/Good to be the maker but bad to be the meth head?”) are comical.
www.deadlygentlemen.com

CD reviews: Jess Yoakum, Dietrich Strause, Vickers Vimy

 Jess Yoakum, “This Quiet Mile”

We first met Jess when she was gigging around Boston a few years ago. Her passionate, confessional lyrics drew us in, much like her musical influences Patty Griffin and Joni Mitchell.
Since then Jess has moved to Chicago, a move we’re sure was exciting – and probably terrifying at the same time. Her new self-released album, “This Quiet Mile,” is certainly influenced by this physical and emotional change. Her previous hometown is mentioned in two different songs, as she speaks of trying to figure out who she is and where she is going. She sings on “Hold Me In”: “Beautiful day/I don’t feel like I remember the sun, the green/And, it’s not this awake in Boston. Not this dirty. Not this real/So, what am I going back to, anyway? And, where will I find my love? My history?”
“Triangles” is a surprisingly rugged opener, with Jess singing through a voice filter: “Playing power games, we’re each as powerless as the rest/It will never be either/or with you it’s always more or less.”
Jess has a beautiful, expressive voice, which stands out against the album’s darker sound – cello, violin, piano and acoustic and pedal steel guitars intertwining in minor chord arrangements. “Texas’’ is one of our favorites, melding lyrics of longing against the realities of Christmas in a state with no winter.
www.jessyoakum.com

Dietrich Strause, “Laborsongs and Barkingdogs”

  Dietrich Strause may be known more around Boston as a trumpet player, but that hasn’t stopped him from trying his hand as a guitar-playing singer-songwriter. In fact the talented Oberlin College graduate (yep, another Oberlin musician! See Josh Ritter) plays a variety of instruments, including mandolin, piano and organ.
  Many of these show up on his self-produced new album, “Laborsongs and Barking dogs.” Strause’s voice is mellifluous; his sound has traces of a young Paul Simon mixed with that Ritter Midwestern wanderlust.
  Standout tunes include “Fire” and “Jean Louise,” a tune that bobs along on acoustic guitar and is based on a “To Kill a Mockingbird’’ character: “Jean Louise I’ll tell you that your bare feet are still too loud, for sneaking through the garden you’ve got bells on your ankles and the belfry’s in the ground, lilacs and violets and a shotgun blast, the mockingbirds in whispers like the sky before the flash.’’
This is a solid outing and we look forward hearing more.
www.dietrichstrause.com

Vickers Vimy, “Vol 1. That Vinyl Scratch”

  One of my favorite albums on these pages was just released this month and is available through Bandcamp.
  Ed Drea and Finton Hanley from Galway, Ireland, have put together an album that reminds us of tunes from Glen Hansard and early Josh Ritter. That may not be hard to figure since they have the backing here by Colm Mac Nomaire of the Frames and the Swell Season.
  Wondering what Vickers Vimy is? According to the band, they take their name from one of the most celebrated cross Atlantic adventures, from 1919. You’ll have to look that one up to get more detail.
  As for the band’s sound, banjos and glockenspiel, in addition to acoustic and electric guitars and light drumming, create a warm atmosphere, as if you’re sitting in an Irish pub listening to them play live. Our favorite track: “Devil on Your Back.” “Old Fashioned Lover” features some fun barrelhouse piano over lyrics about a guy trying to prove his devotion.
www.myspace.com/vickersvimy

CD reviews: Lake Street Dive, Lucinda Black Bear, the Bowmans

Lake Street Dive, "Lake Street Dive"

  Band members Rachel Price, Michael Olson, Bridget Kearney and Michael Calabrese met at New England Conservatory, but don’t let that dissuade you from putting on this album and dancing around your living room because as Lake Street Dive they play ... a wicked mix of country/bluegrass/soul music.
  Price’s voice is soulful, sweet and moving and is backed by solid musicianship, that includes Olson’s enthusiastic guitar and splendid trumpet interludes, Kearney’s acoustic bass, and Calabrese’s steady, sometimes funky beats as well as keyboards.
  The sound of organ, bass and drums is intoxicating on “Don’t Make Me Hold Your Hand.’’ “Henriette” opens with guitar licks reminiscent of early Beatles but then quickly turns into a funky, jazzy tune with a Kearney bass solo in the middle! “Miss Disregard” is a great kiss-off song and “Elijah” is just pure, bouncy fun. “Neighbor Song” opens with the line “I can hear my neighbors making love upstairs/There love is rattling my tables and my chairs.” You think it might be a funny song but it instead explores a sadness of loss of love. A beautiful trumpet solo echoes the heartache and wanting. Lake Street Dive is another in a long line of great, homespun artists picked up by the small Western Mass. label Signature Sounds.
www.lakestreetdive.com

Lucinda Black Bear, “Knives”

  It’s always fun when you come across a band that sounds new and different. Of course, if it doesn’t sound good, who cares? Luckily for us, New York-based Lucinda Black Bear, sounds both different and good.
  Its second album, “Knives,” on the small Eastern Spurs label, the group -- Christian Gibbs on vocals and guitar, Mike Cohen on bass, Kristin Mueller on drums, Chad Hammer on cello – stretches out, adding intricate arrangements that include loops and feedback to its folk-based tunes. It’s a sound that’s not simple to describe: equal parts experimental folk, indie rock, and chamber pop. One song may have the arc of Arcade Fire-esque indie pop, the next will soar like a new-school version of Queen.
  “Hand Bible,” with its guitar-plucked melody and electronica, starts slowly and builds to a crescendo of instruments, drums and bass crashing over Gibbs plaintive vocals. Our favorites include “Laugh at My Tears,” which features a full chorus and guitar break a la Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the neo-country of “She’s a Killer” and rocking “Suffocation Blues.”
www.lucindablackbear.com

The Bowmans, “Live at PowerPlay Studios”

  Sarah and Claire Bowman, twin sisters who have been performing around New York City for years, were recently invited to record these 13 songs – some new, some from past albums – live at the famous Powerplay studio in Maur, Switzerland, a place they have returned to often.
Sarah wrote most of the tracks and plays guitar, while Claire provides the harmonies and percussion, oh, and the album art.
  Playing live proves to be inspiring as this album is filled with the pair’s beautiful shared harmonies.
Back-to-back songs “You’re Right,’’ which urgently rocks on its acoustic guitar backing, and “The Kitchen Song’’ are particularly ear-catching.
  On “On the Road,’’ Sarah sings: “The bumpy road might break your toes, so you will never know/But I’ll take my chances, cut my losses. ’Cause I would rather go.” Sounds like they had a good trip.
www.thebowmansmusic.com

CD review: Zoe Muth & the Lost High Rollers

  Gone Country... by way of Seattle

ZOE MUTH & 

THE LOST HIGH ROLLERS

(Out now)

  “Check out one of the best discoveries the EJB has made on the road...the great Zoe Muth!”
This note by the Eilen Jewell Band on its Facebook page in late July was our introduction to the up and coming “country” girl from Seattle.
Zoe Muth and her band the Lost High Rollers may be an anomaly in the Pacific Northwest, but their sound is faithful right down to its mandolin and banjo twang.
  Muth’s voice falls somewhere between Emmylou and Dolly, with maybe a touch of Lucinda for spice, and is backed by the Lost High Rollers – Ethan Lawton on mandolin, Miguel Sala on bass, Greg Niews on drums, Dave Harmonson on guitars/pedal steel, Tyler Richart on backing vocals/tambourine. The band provides an authenticity that pleasantly transports you to a backporch on a hot southern night.
  With the opening pedal steel licks of “You Only Believe Me When I’m Lying,’’ Muth pours out her heart as guitar mingles with mandolin and bass along bounces in the background.
  Honky-tonkin’ “Hey Little Darlin’ ’’ swings and “I Used to Call My Heart a Home” offers up those ol’ lonesome blues.
  The cool thing about this album is that it does not come off as some country knock-off. We’ve seen Gillian Welch, a California girl, turn old-timey music on its ear with her own interpretation of the music. Zoe Muth, while not nearly as seasoned as Welch, seems to have taken a similar path: an outsider to the music she sings but true to its core.
  The six-minute “The Last Bus” even meanders down a common stretch of road – a weary traveling companion – to Welch’s epic “I Dream a Highway.”
  In fact, Muth’s debut album is filled with songs that sound like they’ve withstood the rigors of the long road of touring, worked out intimately in honky tonks from Seattle all the way to Nashville – even if to date Zoe and the band have made few excursions far outside their native state.
  But it is only a matter of time before the group breaks out.
Songs like “Not You,’’ which sounds like it could have been penned by Loretta Lynn, is a my-man-done-me-wrong standout. Muth sings “I wish I didn’t even have to ask/where you were last night or the night before that...’’ and then she follows that up a few lines later with the tough-as-nails retort “... and if I want to start a fight/it wouldn’t be hard tonight/All I’d have to do is say/Hey, hey, not you.”
  The album certainly hits all the touchstones of country music: heartache, lost love, scorned lovers, long roads, which the final track, the seven-minute “Never Be Fooled Again,’’ encompasses perfectly.
  We certainly hope that Muth’s future travels lead her to a honky tonk bar near us.
To listen to tunes on Zoe's album, click HERE

CD review: Eilen Jewell Presents Butcher Holler

EILEN JEWELL PRESENTS BUTCHER HOLLER
A Tribute to Loretta Lynn
Out July 27

One day last summer, instead of coming straight home from work, I decided to head to the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge for a show by a group called Butcher Holler. Full disclosure: I knew what I was in for. Eilen Jewell and her band performing the songs of one of her idols, Loretta Lynn. (Butcher Holler or, more accurately, Hollow in Kentucky, is in fact the birthplace of Lynn.) I also knew Lynn’s songs were not foreign to Jewell, who has covered of few on her albums and played even a few more live in concert.
But what was a surprise that night and on her new album called Butcher Holler, which comes out officially July 27, was how incredibly natural Jewell is to carry the torch of Lynn’s amazing, heartfelt tunes.
The album opens appropriately on one of my favorite Lynn-penned, Jewell-covered tunes, “Fist City.” It’s hard to believe a country gal living below the Mason-Dixon line in the ‘60s could get away with singing lyrics like this: “I'm not a sayin' my baby's a saint 'cause he ain't/N' that he won't cat around with a kitty/I'm here to tell ya gal to lay offa my man/If ya don't wanna go to fist city,”
Lynn broke some serious barriers for female singers of her time with her tough-as-nails, not-taking-any-guff tunes, and Jewell delivers them with a similar musical sneer. Both Lynn and Jewell are at their best on these tougher tunes - “Ain’t Woman Enough (to Take My Man),” “Don’t Come Home A’Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind.” “Wanna Give Me a Lift” is a sassy reminder of Lynn’s toughness, as Jewell sings “You wanna give me a lift but this gal ain’t goin’ that far.” There are so many fun songs on this album, its tough to pick out favorites. Jewell is once again backed by her superb band - Jason Beek on drums, Jerry Miller on guitars and Johnny Sciascia on bass - though they tend to stay more in the background on this album than on Eilen’s stellar “Sea of Tears,” released last year.
“Who Says God Is Dead” bounces along on Miller’s stellar guitar playing. And we don’t want to leave out how Jewell also capably handles Lynn’s gentler side: songs such as “A Man I Hardly Know,” fronting Miller’s gorgeous steel guitar-playing, “Whispering Sea” and “This Haunted House.”
The album finale is Lynn’s swinging hit “You’re Looking at Country,” a fitting way to close out a sentimental tribute from a modern country girl to her music legend idol.

CD review: Sarah Harmer, "Oh Little Fire"

SARAH HARMER

Oh Little Fire (Out now)

Sarah Harmer has always followed her own path. Her initial breakthrough album, “You Were Here” in 2000 was followed four years later by “All of Our Names,” which netted her the nice little hit “Almost,” and it looked like she was headed for some commercial success in Sarah McLachlan-like territory.

But instead this Sarah took a U-turn and went back home to try to help save her native Canada’s escarpment, and in the process created a wonderful acoustic folk and bluegrass album, “I’m a Mountain.” The 2005 album may have had little commercial appeal but it was a smash with critics and independent-thinking music fans, including this one.

So five years later, we had no idea what to expect from “Oh Little Fire,” her new album. And after a couple of listens we’re still a little in the dark. The album is filled with a group of country, folk and soft-rocking indie-pop tunes.

Harmer has said in interviews that she doesn’t want to be tied to a style, which is great. We were not expecting another “I’m a Mountain,” but few of the songs stand out on “Oh Little Fire” the way some of her past successes have.

The album opens with “The Thief,” which sounds like it could have been very much at home on a Laura Veirs album. “New Loneliness” has a nice slinky sound with organ backing up her acoustic. “One Match” offers glimpses of the voice we fell in love with on “Mountain.” Her voice and her lyrics on such songs as “New Loneliness” have an honesty and sadness to them that makes us think she was going through a rough patch romantically during the making of this album. On “Washington,” she sings: “I didn’t go to Washington/instead I swept the floor. The only things I’ve ever done you can’t see anymore.”  “Silverado’’ gets some beautiful harmonies from fellow Canadian Neko Case,  who seems to be everywhere lately from the New Pornographers to backing Jakob Dylan.

The title “Oh Little Fire” seems to perfectly encapsulate many meanings for the songs on this album. We just wish one of them wasn’t the lack of fire we felt listening to them.