1
 

                      Eilen Jewell — Gypsy (Aug. 16, 2019) Pamela MÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃéndez ÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃâ Time (22 Feb 2019)•⊆⊇•      Americana singer~songwriter from Boise, Idaho whose music blends classic country and vintage blues.
Location: Boise, Idaho
Album release: August 16, 2019
Recording Location: Audio Lab in Garden City, Idaho
Record Label: Signature Sounds
Duration:     36:30
Tracks:
01 Crawl   3:39
02 Miles to Go   3:17
03 You Cared Enough to Lie   2:48
04 79 Cents (The Meow Song)   2:59
05 Beat the Drum   3:13
06 Gypsy   3:21
07 These Blues   2:46
08 Working Hard for Your Love   3:03
09 Who Else But You   3:37
10 Witness   2:53
11 Hard Times   2:42
12 Fear   2:12
Credits:
•  Kevan Ash   Trombone
•  Mavis Beek   Vocals
•  Pinto Bennett   Composer
•  Jim DeMain   Mastering
•  Meghan Dewar   Design
•  Steve Fulton   Engineer, Mixing, Piano (Electric)
•  Jason Beek   Drums, Percussion, Producer, Vocals
•  Eilen Jewell   Composer, Guitar (Ac.+El.), Organ, Producer, Vocals
•  Joe Johnson   Trumpet
•  Dave Manion   Lap Steel Guitar, Pedal Steel Guitar
•  Jerry Miller   Guitar (Electric), Mandolin
•  Katrina Nicolayeff   Fiddle
•  Matthew Patterson   Saxophone
•  Pat Storey   Engineer
•  Shawn Supra   Bass (Upright)
•  Michael Waite   Vocals
  Alison Ward   Musical Saw, Vocals
•  Guthrie Ward   Vocals
•  Ruben Ward   Vocals
•  Travis Ward   Vocals
•  Mark Webb   Composer
Review
Written By Hal Horowitz // August 13, 2019 // Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
•    Studio album number eight from Idaho based singer~songwriter Eilen Jewell covers most of the bases that comprise the somewhat vague Americana genre.
•    Although born and raised in the northwest (where she still lives), Jewell writes music steeped in the American South. Various tunes from this dozen track set — her first of originals since 2015 — reflect styles most associated with the region: from country (she recorded an album of Loretta Lynn songs) and folk to blues (her previous release was a collection of blues covers) and swamp rock. As usual, Jewell adds her distinctive honeyed voice and sharp, occasionally quirky lyrics, which range from specific to impressionistically poetic.
•    On Gypsy, Jewell pushes the boundaries of those genres, augmenting her basic touring quartet with guests playing instruments she hasn’t featured in the past. Jewell is credited with electric guitar for the first time on a recording and also adds organ to her resume. Five backing vocalists are listed along with others playing fiddle, pedal steel, horns (sax, trumpet, trombone) and even musical saw.
•    Jewell is as convincing with old~school honky~tonking (“You Cared Enough to Lie,” the disc’s lone cover, and “These Blues,” the latter sounding like a great lost Hank Williams track) as with the menacing swamp rocking “Crawl,” which kicks off the set and features a snaking fiddle solo and veteran guitarist Jerry Miller’s vibrato.
•    On “Working Hard for Your Love” Jewell delivers a brooding power chord ballad that wouldn’t be out of place in Tom Petty’s catalog. On the title track, she tamps down the sound to feature Miller’s mandolin. The subtle pulsating heartbeat percussion and gently flowing lead guitar of the traveling~themed tune seems to be a reflective look at her itinerant lifestyle. And the sweet ’60s slow dance blues of “Witness” encourages listeners to stop and smell the roses (“Hear the blue jay in the garden, the little tune he sings/he’s singing it for you if you just stop to hear”) with lovely muted horn accompaniment.
•     The most startling aspect of Gypsy is the explicitly political material, something Jewell has shied away from in the past. On “79 Cents (The Meow Song)” she illustrates the pay gap between women and men (“Mama gets less, it’s the motherhood penalty”) but does it with charming wit and humor helped by her compassionate vocals. The following “Beat The Drum” ramps up the drama, as Jewell encourages the oppressed to resist (“If we don’t persist all hope will die”), urged by calmly dissonant fiddle and pedal steel. Perhaps a few retro~styled rockers would have upped the overall energy (those who have seen Jewell and band tear into “Shaking All Over” live know they are more than capable), but this remains yet another diverse, refined and intermittently provocative release from an experienced singer~songwriter who consistently provides the Americana goods with cleverness, class and style.  https://americansongwriter.com/ 
AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine; Score: ****
•⊆⊇•     Returning to original material after the 2017 covers album Down Hearted Blues, Eilen Jewell is unusually engaged with the modern world on Gypsy. This doesn’t mean the singer/songwriter is abandoning her Americana for country~pop. With its smoldering, swampy groove and sawing fiddles, the opening “Crawl” makes it clear that Jewell continues to mine and fuse all aspects of American roots music; she’s as comfortable with country as she is soul. What gives Gypsy its contemporary kick is how Jewell stares directly at the political turmoil that’s roiling America in the waning years of the 2010s. On “79 Cents (The Meow Song),” she takes aim at both the gender pay gap and Donald J. Trump, tying the two together on its closing refrain, while “Beat the Drum” — another key cut that seems to arise out of the swamp — is a rallying call to resist. As strong as these two songs are, what makes them so effective is how they’re surrounded by songs of empathy, sensuality, and humor, songs that help convey a full range of human feeling; pleasure sits alongside protest, which is perhaps as sensible a way to live in 2019 as anything else. As impressive as these textured emotions are, Gypsy succeeds as a record because of Jewell’s facility with roots music. When she sings a hardfloor honky tonk tune like “These Blues,” she’s as convincing as when she’s working a steamy slow dance like “Witness,” and her voice is as affecting when it’s plaintive (“Fear”) as when she’s telling a sly joke (“You Cared Enough to Lie”), and that skill is what ties the disparate Gypsy together, making it sound fully realized and easy, which is a pretty alluring combination. •⊆⊇• https://www.allmusic.com/ 
Website: http://www.eilenjewell.com/ 
FB fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/eilenjewellfanpage/  
•⊆⊇•
______________________________________________

NEWS

archív

ALBUM COVERS XI.