(Joel Harrison – guitars, voice; Stephen Crump – bass; Ben Wittman – drums; Gary Versace – piano, Hammond B3 organ, accordion; Chris Howes – violins, bass violin; plus guest sidemen)
One of the more versatile jazzmen alive, Joel Harrison here unveils his jazz-pop ambitions. If it’s not entirely successful, it certainly expresses a vocal side of Harrison that has previously been exposed (Harrison on Harrison, Free Country, So Long 2nd Street), but never quite this extensively. With a vocal delivery part David Clayton Thomas, part Stevie Winwood, part generic folk/country, Harrison generally makes a favorable impression, although sometimes he seems to be trying too hard.
The songs . . . well, I don’t quite know what to say. My problem with them is that, although they try for some kind of heartlandish, Americana vibe, they don’t seem to have the same rootedness as, say, Neil Young’s, John Cougar Mellancamp’s, Graham Parsons’ or even Lowell George’s finest efforts. There’s an affectedness that our finest practitioners of such music avoid or overcome: Here, less is going on that meets the ear, although initial listens may convey the opposite sense. Where poignancy is attempted, too often something approaching bathos is the result. Too harsh? Perhaps. But that’s how I see it.
Nevertheless. There is much here to ponder. The arrangements, playing, and soundscape are nothing short of spectacular, lending a haunting, authentically scary/prairie + New American Heartland kind of vibe probably never before quite evoked in a manner like this. Thus, Harrison is on to something genuinely new and thoroughly up-to-date. That he doesn’t quite pull it off is less important than the fact that he tried it all. Joel Harrison is an artist always worth hearing.
Tracklist: The Wishing Well, Passing Train, Northwest Jewel, Glory Days Are Gone, Ship Sailing Cross a Mountain, Travel On, No One Knows How to Die, Midnight, God Loves a Loser, Regret, Just for the Ride, Wash Away
— Jan Dennis
