One reviewer compared Jen Crowell's voice to Natalie Merchant's, and I can see that. But it doesn't do Crowell full justice. Her voice is deeper, warmer, more sultry, with a beguiling backwoods roughness to it, like a sip of good bourbon.
It's a voice that's in fine form on her new CD, "Cold Front," which will be unveiled before Brattleboro audiences tonight (Friday, Feb. 20) at an after-hours event at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center from 8 to 11 p.m. Crowell will be on hand to play some of the songs with some of the musicians that make up Woods Vehicle. I can't wait to check these musicians out live. The album has made quite an impression.
If weathered barnboard or the monochromatic winter landscape we see out our windows had a sound, "Cold Front" captures it, with 10 thoughtful, well-wrought songs featuring Crowell's versatile and marvelous voice and a skilled group of musicians that includes Stefan Amidon on drums, Max Adam on bass, Adam Frehm (lap steel, guitar), Aya Inoue and Celia Jayne Woods (vocals), Patrick Ross (fiddle), Scott Tournet (of Grace Potter's band on guitar) and Grace Potter herself. You can tell a lot about a musician by the company she keeps. Crowell has enlisted a fine group of musicians to her aid, and the result is a rich listening experience.
There's a certain bleakness to "Cold Front"; most of the songs deal in some way with an essential dissatisfaction - love lost, chances lost, distance that cannot be bridged. There's a restless edginess to it. But what makes this album rise above mere whininess is the resolute strength of the songs. There is a steel willingness to go on, to accept what's happened and simply forge ahead. These songs don't wallow in self-pity; they own their pain; they're grown-up about this, and they will prevail without a lot of hopeful happy-go-lucky horseshit. It's refreshingly honest material.
And it's presented in songs that forge rock, traditional, bluegrass, indie and soul influences into something distinct. My own personal favorites were the title track and the next one, "Whiskey." Crowell's vocals are at her best on the totally compelling 'Hey," an expressive ballad where her alto floats soulfully over a solo acoustic guitar.
This is a CD that pulls you in over time, it begs to be listened to carefully, so you can take in the words, the songs, the fine musicianship, the strength of it all. If you miss the Brattleboro show on Feb. 20, Crowell's back in town again the next week, sharing the stage at the Weathervane with two other bands of kids who grew up here and have moved on. If you miss that one, check out www.jencrowell.com. Just don't miss "Cold Front."