Jackie Greene – Gone Wanderin'

Why so many people are missing out on Jackie Green is beyond me. He’s probably one of the most promising, innovative and fundamentally strong musicians to come out during the last ten years.

He plays relentlessly, comfortable in a bar or a concert hall. His lyrics are clear, thoughtful and has great stories laced within. I’m not going to attempt to categorize this fine young musician, or even ask where he’s managed to find the ancient musician’s spirit that resides within him, but if I were to say that he’s got some serious rockin’ blues going on, I wouldn’t be far off track. If I were to say his structure and verse draw deeply from the roots of country, jazz, rock, blues and folk, he would give a gracious nod to all of those who have gone before him.

His guitar work is flawless, there are no screeches on the strings as he moves from one note to the next, just listen to ‘Mexican Girl’ to hear what I mean, and then remind yourself of his age. But he doesn’t stop there, he can do finger picking with the best of them, play the harmonica, and arrange all of this in a clean manner that sets your toes to tapping, your head to nodding ... mixing blues, rock and whatever else is in his kitchen sink to smack you upside the head with his tunes. Just dig on ‘Down In The Valley Woe, it will take you back to what John Mayll quite doing because it took too much effort for him. His magic on the keyboards is no less amazing, and I can hardly contain myself hearing him move from one instrument to the next, with a style and grace so seldom seen or heard, even from those who’ve been in the business forever.

He draws his skills from the past, when artists actually knew their songs and crafted their music before they ever went into the recording studio, just years of practice and patience, all learned from playing on stage, any stage, night after night. Jackie once said, "I've made four records in my life and each one is different on purpose. If you do the same record over and over, it becomes a boring day job. I believe it's important to stretch as far as your bones will let you." Jackie has earned his stripes with experimentation and growth, he knows where he’s been, but more importantly, he knows where he’s going. Sure it’s important to look back, but when you do, you don’t want to see a field of chaos, you want to see a nice clean line in the sand. Man, this guy is going to be around for a long time, so pick up on him now before someone in the future holds up a disc and gives you a history lesson. This is a near perfect release, but don't tell Jackie that, he doesn't believe in perfection, he claims to just capture moments in time. Whatever he captured was a perfect moment for me.

If you are able to catch this boy anywhere, anytime ... please be sure to do so. You will walk out of his show one happy person.

He’s like most of us, if he’s not playing, he’s combing the isles of some used record store, searching for that special piece of music. Oh, and he’s a really nice guy too, down to earth, happy to speak with you if you have the time and courage to walk up and say ‘Hi.’

Review by Jenell Kesler