LYNN JACKSON: Sweet Relief

Lynn Jackson

Sweet Relief

© 2006 Lynn Jackson (775020680524)

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Rootsy folk with an edge and a powerful voice. Great songs and an amazing band.

notes

With her new album Sweet Relief, singer-songwriter Lynn Jackson heads into roots territory, thanks to co-producer and long-time Fred Eaglesmith band member Dan Walsh (guitars/dobro), who enlisted the talents of Willie P. Bennett (harmonica/mandolin), Luke Stackhouse (upright bass), Richard Gulley (electric guitar), Steve Beach (piano/organ) and Andy Miller (drums).

From mid-tempo bluesy numbers like Gone for Good, to upbeat rockers like Big Mistake to dusty road ballads like Running, the songs read more like stories, offering snapshots of characters and situations. The follow-up to her 2004 debut Night Songs, Sweet Relief is an assured mix of the intimate and the universal, mixing detailed storytelling with timeless melodies.

'Sweet Relief' has received substantial airplay and great reviews, including Exclaim magazine which called it 'an understated gem'.

reviews

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  • A Beautiful Collection of Songs
    author: Rambles.net

    Singer-songwriter Lynn Jackson has a voice that could charm the birds out of the trees -- a honey-sweet, countryish vocal style that swaggers jauntily through her uptempo numbers and skulks beautifully across her slower, more laidback numbers. On songs like "Gone for Good," the Canadian manages to give that kind of life-affirming quality to a song that her fellow countrywomen Joni Mitchell and kd lang have in spades. "Big Mistake" is a snaking, bluesy romp through treated harmonica and electric guitar swampland. An admonition to a lover, the song shows the extent of Jackson's range as a singer and writer. "You Say," "The End" and "Forecast" are more introspective, thoughtful compositions. Her voice, by turns husky and angelic, reveals its ability to turn from fragile to robust in a few bars. The title track is a classic country song about loss and regret, and Dan Walsh's dobro gives the song a timeless feel. The only non-Jackson composition on the record is Leonard Cohen's "Tower of Song," and her reading is a good one. Investing the song with a lively femininity, she sashays her way though the corridors of the tower with the lightfooted gait of a barefoot nubile. The arrangement is beautiful and she manages to pull off the feat of making the song her own. Quite an achievement. Overall, Sweet Relief is a beautiful collection of songs by Jackson and her band. There is much chemistry at work here, and we should be hearing a lot more about her in the future.

  • Hypnotizing grace !
    author: Shameless Magazine

    Lynn Jackson has made a bona fide country-roots album. And though the genre is still waiting for its revival, Jackson's second album makes a good case for it. Her writing on Sweet Relief is so personal that the disc could have been called Sweet Release instead. The Kitchener, Ontario resident warbles about empty days, nostalgic relationships and looking for direction, covering Leonard Cohen's "Tower of Song" along the way. Her voice is delicate but never falters, fusing with bluegrass instruments like mandolins, vibraslaps, glass and organs. Jackson even manages to pull off jazzy-blues on standout "Gone for Good" Sweet Relief won't make you love country if you don't already. But Jackson's delicate, soothing voice, paired with the hypnotizing grace of her acoustic guitar and the sorrowful accompaniment of harmonicas and organs, is compelling. The country revival may be closer than you think.

  • First-rate, moody, spare songs.
    author: Sing Out Magazine

    The heart of the sophomore effort from this Ontario songwriter is the spare poetic mood-songs and a whistful whispery voice that conveys a palette of emotion from longing and regret to freedom and nostalgia. But, the soul of the CD is the first-rate tasteful production by Jackson and Dan Walsh: A perfectly-executed romp from country to rockabilly to jump blues. Fred Eaglesmith band members, Walsh, Willie P. Bennett and Luke Stackhouse contribute to well-crafted arrangements, drawing the listener into the moody, spare songs.

  • effortlessly laidback collection marked throughout by an air of elegant simplici
    author: Exclaim Magazine

    Kitchener songstress Lynn Jackson’s second album, the follow-up to 2004’s well-received Night Songs, is an effortlessly laidback collection marked throughout by an air of elegant simplicity. Recorded “in a cozy little shack on Lake Erie,” such graceful austerity lends itself well to Jackson’s particular hybrid of folk/country/blues. Co-produced with renowned multi-instrumentalist Dan Walsh (Fred J. Eaglesmith), Sweet Relief’s straightforward arrangements provide the ideal setting for Jackson’s similarly unpretentious lyrics and lilting vocals. Word and voice come together particularly well on the elegiac ballad “The End,” written for the late Matt Osborne, as well as on “Raining on Our House,” a plaintive tale of a broken spirit. And, though Jackson’s higher-register voice sometimes seems at odds with some of the blues-ier fare on offer, it is well-suited to the upbeat country rock treatment given Leonard Cohen’s “Tower Of Song” and the sweet country lament of “Forecast.” For his part, Walsh offers effective musical accompaniment on every song here, whether playing guitar, dobro or drums (to name a few). Canadian folk legend Willie P. Bennett also appears on seven of Sweet Relief’s 11 tracks — his harmonica and mandolin playing adding timely atmospheric touches throughout this understated gem.

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