JENNIFER GETZ is a guitar strumming singer songwriter. This long delayed debut album was brought together by one time Electric Prune John Herron during 2004. Tragically Herron got run over right at the end of the sessions, and died in a coma several months later. One of his significant contributions to the album was assembling some very tidy pro musicians to kick in behind his protégée. Bass player Gregg Sutton (who played on Bob Dylan dates in England during 1984) for example.
The smooth result is testimony to Herron's move. The playing is unobtrusive, protective, note perfect. And maybe a little anonymous. Listen closely to the individual parts and you won’t hear any bleeding edges. But all put together they do as fine a job as any countrified roots rock band on much bigger stages. Getz's singing voice ends up (as it should do) the dominant sound, and the one that will decide whether you love this CD or whether (like me) you find the exaggeratedly nasal tone a bit of a problem. She really doesn’t sound well. Maybe a bad cold? But it is consistent. So it’s obviously her voice and if you can take it, you'll be able to get right into the songs.
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Because this really is an album of songs. The tunes don’t do anything unexpected, and I can’t say that I'm humming any to myself after a few plays through. What they do have is an emotional intensity and an optimistic rise and fall that puts the mournfulness and anxiety into their rightful places.
"45" was one song that really struck me. There's a deep cello part and a rising guitar pattern that gradually sets up the rather stark message of the song in fine style. "Who needs a girl with a 45 to blow my mind away?" Exactly. Striking phrases turn up throughout the album. The big picture builds a line at a time. The themes are transience, uncertainty, self doubt and the search for a soulmate. I can imagine some folk living with this album during a whole chunk of their nearly (or early) adult lives. The pretty but almost indecipherable hand written lyrics on the CD liner will help the sense of close involvement and personal contact.
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