STACK October 2016 Issue 144

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Beth Hart
Fire On The Floor
Among the great singers of her
generation, Beth Hart's new
album – the most musically
varied of her two-decade career –
was recorded in three days with
an all-star band that included
guitarists Waddy Wachtel,
Michael Landau and Dean Parks,
drummer Rick Marotta and
keyboardist Ivan Neville.
Gritty, soulful and totally
believable, Hart runs the gamut
of genre, jazz on Coca Cola , a
nod to Billie Holiday, salsa (the
horn-driven Let's Get Together )
blues on Love Is A Lie and the
revealing title track: "Love is a
fever and it's burning me alive..."
(Mascot/Warner) Billy Pinnell
Feels Like Home (2004)
Given those massive sales, we assume you've got her
debut. But this follow-up – where she went even more
country by duetting with Dolly Parton and writing lyrics for
Ellington's Don't Miss You At All – was its musical equal.
You don't have TomWaits and Kathleen Brennan write a
song for you, or have Levon Helm and Garth Hudson from
The Band as guests, if you ain't doin' something right.
The Little Willies (2006)
This band was her breathing space away from the solo
spotlight, and with friends she sang country songs (by
Hank Williams, Van Zandt, Nelson and others) alongside
originals. The closer about Lou Reed is very funny and
shows this project to be a relaxed, quiet spot in her high-
profile world.
The Fall (2009)
By this fourth release, many had decided Jones was just
making the same album over and over, although that was
far from true. Again she had interesting guests (guitarists
Marc Ribot and Smokey Hormel among them), and co-
wrote with Ryan Adams and Okkervil River's Will Sheff.
Darker, more brooding and steamy in places. The lost
Jones album?
Featuring Norah Jones (2010)
Something of a career stopgap compilation which
collects her guest appearances with everyone from the
Foo Fighters, Outkast and Talib Kweli to Ray Charles,
Willie Nelson and Herbie Hancock. More shapeless
than previous outings, but if we judge someone by the
company they keep...
NORAH JONES
And also...
Norah Jones puts herself about a bit – check her numerous guest
appearances on a couple of dozen albums – but her most unexpected
pairing was with Billy Joe Armstrong of Green Day for the 2013 album
Foreverly on which they covered the Everly Brothers' 1958 album Songs
Our Daddy Taught Us . It is surprisingly good.
For more interviews, reviews and overviews from Graham Reid visit
Deborah Conway and
Willy Zygier
Everybody's Begging
Twenty-five years after her solo
debut, String Of Pearls – one of
the great Australian albums –
Deborah Conway releases her
ninth album, the fourth that’s
also credited to her husband,
Willy Zygier. It’s a compelling
meditation on art and struggle:
“The path to salvation’s one long
battle,” Conway sings in the title
track. Few songs have conveyed
the frustration and joy of making
music as beautifully as This Song
Has Got Me: “Once I did it for
rebellion, for the poet in my soul,”
Conway confides. “Now I do it for
the money, but I try to get it right.”
And she gets it wonderfully right
with this release.
(Intercorps/MGM) Jeff Jenkins
Jordie Lane & The
Sleepers Glassellland
Jordie Lane’s new album
features a song called America,
Won’t You Make My Dreams
Come True? The Melbourne
singer-songwriter is clearly
pitching his Americana at the
source, and he certainly has the
songwriting smarts to become
a star. Glassellland – which
takes its title from the L.A.
suburb, Glassell Park, where
Lane recorded – is filled with
superb story songs. Produced
by Clare Reynolds, who also
provides backing vocals, Lane
comes across as an old-school
troubadour. “I’m stuck in a
dream on a yellow brick road,”
he sings, “blowin’ in the wind
like an old scarecrow.”
(BloodThinner Records/
MGM) Jeff Jenkins
visit
24 OCTOBER 2016
MUSIC REVIEWS
Keb' Mo'
Live: That Hot Pink Blues
Album
Blues singer/guitarist/songwriter
Keb' Mo's new 16-track album
is a snapshot of his 2015 US
tour, featuring a mix of his song
catalogue from the past 20 years.
His postmodern blues style,
influenced by many genres
including folk, gospel, funk, jazz
and rock, leaves plenty of room
for his outstanding road band –
keyboards, bass, drums and at
some venues a string section –
to improvise. They move skilfully
around Mo's always tasteful
acoustic and electric guitar solos,
which require no posturing, no
histrionics.
Versatility has always been this
great musician’s strength.
Listen and enjoy.
(Planet/MGM) Billy Pinnell
Because her debut album Come AwayWith Me
(2002) sold over 25 million copies, smart folks
and cynics wrote Norah Jones' music off as
polite MOR. But it was a canny distillation of
country and cool jazz, and her new album Day
Breaks – originals and covers of material by Duke
Ellington, Horace Silver and Neil Young – takes
her back to those roots. Here are some pointers
where it comes to her catalogue...