A lushly orchestrated roots record with hauntingly beautiful melodies.

14 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Progressive Folk, FOLK: Jazzy folk

Details:
âSince 2004 Iâve released an album a year,â singerâ
songwriter Lynn Jackson elaborates of her profile.

âThe joy in all this for me is, mostly, the songwriting. Thatâs the part Iâm most passionate about. I donât really sit down to specifically write songs. I rehearse quite a bit though and often the song ideas just come and I try to capture them and work them out before they
escape me.â

Jacksonâs near staggering productivity betrays her modesty
cause not just any hack can bang out an album a year.

Her last,2007âs Restless Days, revealed a songwriter who had matured into something special: an author capable of touching the hearts of many with simple stories about everyman. Saints and sinners, drunks and singers. Itâs that careful observation of the human spirit that lent her countryâfolk itâs weight.

After three albums spent studiously crafting her charming Alison Kraussâesque style,and dissecting the human condition, Jackson is taking a bit of a
different approach with her newest longâplayer, Soft Stars.

âSweet Relief and Restless Days were albums more in
the folkâroots tradition which is a sound I love,â she says. âBut this time around I wanted to try something different. Those earlier albums were heavily based around
my acoustic guitar so even though I write on the guitar, I decided to try as much as possible to take guitar out of the picture, or at least give it a lesser role.

âThere are still a number of story songs on Soft Stars. For
instance, â4th of Julyâ is a murder ballad. âMark The Spotâ is another storyâcharacter tale, while songs like âSame Sunâ, âDevilâ and âSaturdaysâ are songs that are written in character. Writing stories or writing in character allows me the freedom to write about a wider spectrum of themes and ideas.â

Though her stories and ruminations remain as vibrant and
rich as on previous albums, the shift away from standard rootsâfolk is immediately evident. The warm acoustic tones of the piano, banjo, and cello allow Jackson room to flex her high,hushed register and reveal a voice thatâs less a country girlâs than it is a mature, even sultry womanâs. Doubtless, this stylistic curveball was at least in part influenced by her production team of Bob Egan, (Blue Rodeo), and Ryan Allen.

âBoth Bob and Ryan have good sets of ears. I came in with
the songs mostly arranged, with ideas about which instruments should be on which songs, but Bob had a few surprises up his sleeve and brought in some great players like Feistâs horn player Bryden Baird and Lewis Melville on banjo. And of course Bob plays on the album too [pedal steel]. I managed to get violin/mandolin
player Shane Guse in for a session and Dan Walsh plays resonator on a track too.â

People who are interested in Patty Griffin Feist should consider this download.