Better Yet

Longtime readers of Frontier Partisans know that Tom Russell is a giant in my pantheon of storytellers. His music has been the soundtrack for many an adventure down dusty desert roads and mountain trails, and he’s a key influence on my own songwriting and music. I learned to fingerpick because he said I should — and just as he promised, it opened new textures in both my playing and writing.

One of the most consistently creative of all jazz singers, Sheila Jordan has a relatively small voice, but has done the maximum with her instrument. She is one of the few vocalists who can improvise logical lyrics (which often rhyme), she is a superb scat singer, and is also an emotional interpreter of ballads. Yet despite her talents, Jordan spent much of the 1960s and '70s working at a conventional day job. She studied piano when she was 11 and early on, sang vocalese in a vocal group. Jordan moved to New York in the 1950s, was married to Duke Jordan (1952-62), studied with Lennie Tristano…

John Ford’s always been an optimist and his faith in the future shone through “Heavy Disguise” that the bass player set in the heart of STRAWBS’ “Grave New World.” The veteran’s new album taps into the same, although much more lyrical, vibe which follows the instrumental twang of 2014’s "No Talkin’" with an array of songs in search of a higher ground. So while there’s urban loneliness in “Concrete Jungle” bouncing off an acoustic guitars web and a sensual beat, Ford’s brisk appropriation of his former band’s “Deep In The Darkest Night” chases the gloom away.

A new decade, a new lineup, with Frank Bornemann on guitar and vocals, Klaus-Peter Maziol (who stayed on from the previous lineup) on bass, Hannes Folberth on keyboards, Hannes Arkona on guitars, and British born drummer Jim McGillivray. This marked a new direction for the band, a more accessible, direct approach in their music…