This week's roots reviews
JASON & THE SCORCHERS
Halcyon Times
JCPL
****
You can't keep a good band down – for ever, that is. Cowpunk pioneers Jason the Scorchers turn it up one more time on this, their first studio album since the mid-1990s. Driven on by Warner E Hodges's fiery guitar and a new rock solid rhythm section of Al Collins (bass) and Pontus Snibb (drums), singer Jason Ringenberg makes light of the years with a typically corruscating high-energy performance. All 14 tracks are new, and the Ringenberg/ Hodges axis has lost none of its power. As the title implies, there is a fair deal of looking back on tracks such as Days of Wine and Roses and Golden Days, but there's nothing slack or compromised in their playing, and the songs are generally strong if limited. It could be argued that Halycon Days is the album they promised way back in the 1980s.
Too late? Nope, it's never too late to rock'n'roll for the greying twangsters. www.jasonandthe scorchers.com
Download tracks:Moonshine Boy, Golden Days, Twangtown Blue
JENNI MULDAUR
Dearest Darlin'
Continental
****
The name should ring a bell: Jenni is the daughter of vintage American blues classicists Geoff and Maria Muldaur. This is Muldaur’s second solo album (her debut was recorded in the early 1990s), but there is a real feeling in this sumptuous parade of r’n’b (the real stuff), soul, jump blues, field holler, 1970s blues-eyed soul and Bo Diddley riffs that the real Jenni is finally making her move after years singing back-up for everyone from Eric Clapton to Teddy Thompson. She knows how to temper her big voice to best effect, and there are, eerily, traces of her mother’s sweet tones as she swings through a collection of songs learned from the likes of Big Maybelle. And Muldaur has a cracking band, including celebrated blues guitarist Sean Costello, to whom the album is dedicated (he died last year at 29). If you think Duffy is the business, then bend an ear pronto. www.jennimuldaur.com
Download tracks:I've Got a Feeling, Blame It on the World, Comotose Town
