When you are considered one of the greatest songwriters, especially by the experts, of the most important state of country music, then maybe you have to have something special.
In Texas our Jason Eady is a true cult, not one that fills the stadiums, but a poet, a writer of songs for the soul and to savor in one of those dusty old bars.
Jason, however, has another thing in common with some of the greatest cult Texan songwriters, that is, he is not originally from Texas, but comes from Jackson, Mississippi.
He has been in the music business for many years and after many records of absolute quality he has learned to know the sound of Jason, a delicious mix of his musical influences: the blues of his origin and the dusty Texas country. But the influence of blues and folk had always been mentioned, a sort of background to his songs.
When you are born in a place like the one where Eady was born and you dedicate your life to music, you can only be influenced by this sound that is in the air, in the water, in people’s lives.
The blues stick to your bones since you were a child and then when you have the talent that this man has, then everything is put into the music that you imagine and create.
But Jason Eady in this new album, not surprisingly entitled Mississippi, also thanks to the production of Gordy Quist of the Band of Heatens and a quality band, puts the influences that have guided him since childhood in the foreground and gives us a record that is a jewel of blues of the South.
These are 10 pieces that show the world the class he has in writing songs, an elegance immersed in the waters of the Great River and in his spirit and soiled by the dust of the place where he decided to live with his wife Courtney Patton, present also her in the record with her beautiful voice and that has also released her in this 2023 a beautiful record (Electrostatic).
Personally I found these songs similar to the way the legendary Tony Joe White made music and I must say that to go from writing songs by country Texan author to swamp music, being credible, is not really for everyone.
The opening of the album is entrusted to the wonderful Way Down In Mississippi, a catchy blues, with that rhythm that takes you and makes you want to move and you feel like you are in one of those juke joint where the blues was born.
A celebration of this music, the one in Jason Eady’s bones.
Burn It Down has a soul delicately funk and the writing happened together with another songwriter elegant and brilliant and that is Adam Hood, gives him more character.
Great work of guitars and keyboards. The voice of Patton linked to his is soul, is depth of sound and vision. Beautiful.
Wayside is groove, it’s blues, it’s gospel: it sticks to you and won’t let go of you anymore, like the humid air of the Mississippi in summer.
Kind of like the inspiration for writing the songs he talks about in the song.
A slight trumpet sound hovers in the beautiful Once Upon a Time in New Orleans, as to transport us to the French Quarter, between street musicians and sensual dances. A little funk, a lot of blues and a lot of class.
The resophonic guitar carries the sound of another jewel written with Adam Hood, Mile Over 45.
Eady’s voice is perfect for creeping into the notes painted by the guitar and dragging us along the banks of the river, where a blues musician is waiting for us.
Stories of oppression and hard lives. If you want to find instead the influence that the Texas country has had in the music of Eady, listen to the final Misty, but always with the blues swampy as a backdrop.
The choirs, the slide, the magic keyboards, all contribute to transport us in this wonderful journey that Eady has made to the origins of his musical passion.
A record that I absolutely loved from the first to the last note, a work of a man who with class and simplicity, paints and gives songs that seem written and played live.
I’ve always thought of Jason Eady’s records as perfect for a road trip with the windows down and away along a deserted road: here, this Mississippi doesn’t need cars or long highways in front of you to travel.
Mississippi is a wonderful trip to places where blues is also in the land that tramples, where the great river flows slowly and gives magic to the people it touches.
It is not an original journey, you may say, many have done it: yes, but when a talented songwriter like Jason Eady does it and that in the songs he can also put his Texan influences, then the result is a record that could become a guide to the Southern Sound of the United States. So, what are you waiting for? Get on board and get ready to get to know one of the most magical places for American music, exceptional guide: Jason Eady, from Jackson, Mississippi.
Good listening,
Trex Willer by http://www.ticinonotizie.it
(in Ticino Notizie web site you can find original italian version of this article)
