James Gordon, My Stars, Your Eyes (Borealis, 2010)
Jesse Winchester, Love Filling Station (Appleseed, 2009)
These two artists have been around a long time. They've played everyplace from bars to festivals. They've written songs that other people have recorded, with success. And yet they've managed, for the most part, to fly under the radar.
James Gordon is a Canadian from Guelph, Ontario (just a half-hour drive from my place). He has written a thousand songs, many while working as writer in residence at CBC Radio. You gotta love a country that employs a songwriter on staff at their national radio station, don'tcha think? The Cowboy Junkies included his "Mining For Gold" on their classic The Trinity Sessions album. Gordon himself has released some three dozen albums of his own (or as a member of Tamarack). My Stars, Your Eyes is his fifth album on Borealis, and it's another collection of 12 of Gordon's most recent compositions, starting with "I've Come Along." I know it's not really fair to make these connections (even if they're helpful), but I can't for the life of me put my finger on who it is James Gordon reminds me of (maybe Tom Paxton). He sings about silent canoes and gentle cicadas. He sings of the Canadian landscape, and if you've never seen it, you'll have to trust me when I say it's worth singing about. His band includes two sons (Evan on bass, guitars, keyboards, and drums, and Geordie on keyboards and drums) and a couple of guests, but really this is James' album. He wrote the songs, sings them, and plays banjo, recorder, harmonica, trumpet, accordion, and guitar. The songs are well constructed, and the lyrics are about things. How to live, with each other and with the world, social causes, and even about the time somebody tried to steal his merch at a gig ("The Great Duncan Heist"). This is solid, listenable contemporary folk music. This guy is a contender. Try him out!
From a native Canadian to a visitor who stayed. Jesse Winchester is a transplanted American from Louisiana and Mississippi. He first came to the Great White North (outside Montreal) to avoid the draft, and stayed here. I well recall the fuss that accompanied his first album, simply called Jesse Winchester. Rumours flew, was he Bob Dylan recording under an assumed name? After all, the album featured members of The Band and was produced by Robbie Robertson. It was a moody, sort of rocking, affair with a couple of sizzling electric guitar solos courtesy of Robbie, and some nice acoustic sounds from Jesse's own fingerpicked guitar and David Rea. Maybe his most memorable album, I've bought four copies of it over the years and worn three out. Then he brought in Todd Rundgren to produce a couple albums of whimsical, gentle tunes. Then Willie Mitchell added a touch of Memphis funk ... but only a touch. The music seemed to get even gentler with age, and even the presence of Steve Cropper on the last album didn't stir things up too much.
Love Filling Station continues this descent into somnambulism. OK, maybe that's harsh, since there's enough really good picking going on here. It's just that the groove (while funky) is so darned mellow that, unless you do pay attention, the whole album can drift pleasantly by, and you wonder where it went. When Jesse does a blues song, "Wear Me Out," the band (Jerry Douglas, Russ Barenberg, Mark Fain, Andy Leftwich) picks up a groove, steady and moving, the guitarist highlights the track with a sting here and there, but Jesse's voice is smooth and quiet. Not unlike J.J. Cale in some ways but less bluesy, more poppy.
I like Jesse Winchester very much -- always have since that first album. I even named my son Jesse, partly in tribute to the man who wrote "Yankee Lady." Trouble is, there's nothing on here of that quality. It's not bad, and there are some quite lovely moments, but it simply seems insubstantial. There's no "Black Dog" (a song which continues to scare me) or "Brand New Tennessee Waltz" or even a "Rhumba Man." In fact the most memorable tune is Ben E. King's "Stand By Me." And still, I can't stop playing it ... hoping it will grow on me with familiarity. I just can't help lovin' that voice!
