The Jenny Kerr Band ­ Itch JennyCo Records JCO-1061

By William Michael Smith

	Jenny Kerr has one of those magnetizing voices. Make that electro-magnetic. I suppose it is only human nature when we hear new music by an "unheard of" band to make comparisons, and my first thought as I listened to "Itch" was "who does that voice sound like?" It was sultry, rich, and occasionally down-right come-hither vampishly brazen. Bonnie Raitt? No, too smooth and too much bottom for Bonnie. Susan Tedeschi? Similar, but sultrier, duskier, more mature. Tracy Nelson? Not that jazzy or operatic. Marcia Ball? Very close, especially the attitude and delivery. But no cigar. I was reading the fine print on the CD jacket as I listened when I noticed the tiny words: All songs written by Jenny Kerr except 'Mississippi Delta' (Bobby Gentry). And then it hit me full in the face ­ Jenny Kerr had that smooth, rich-textured, world-weary, I-ain't-no-dummy voice of the 'Ode to Billie Joe' songstress, the immortal Ms. Gentry. By the time I'd worked my way through "Itch" once, I was hooked on the Jenny Kerr Band. But the real test for the band waited at home. Upon arrival at La Casa, I put the CD in the Living Room Monster, turned the volume up to a decent listening level and pushed the play button. I located my spouse in the kitchen (amazingly in front of the stove with a large spoon in her hand and something that smelled heavenly simmering on the burner!). I grabbed the High Life, took the newspaper and sat at the kitchen table. The song finished and I still hadn't heard the fateful words "Turn that down!" On track three I looked up to see that she was actually doing that little shake she does when the music is getting in her groove. Things were looking up for Jenny Kerr. And then came the signal that Jenny Kerr is going platinum with this CD. My wife looked up and asked, "Who's this?" Usually such a question immediately precedes her seizing whatever CD she is inquiring about, placing it in the ten-disc changer in her Thunder Wagon and keeping it there until I get brave enough to suggest she's had it long enough. Seldom less than three months. My own taste having thus been confirmed by my personal in-home musical barometer, I now have the confidence to state unequivocally that "Itch" is a fine debut album by a band that combines country, blues, and rock with a dash of spicy Mexican border sounds into a tasty Americana stew that is full of meat and totally void of filler. The particular instrumentation and the arrangements give this band an energetic but down-to-earth feel like few others possess. And don't underestimate or try to pigeonhole Jenny Kerr. She doesn't just sing like some of the most respected voices in the genre, she plays a stellar harmonica (both blues and country style), guitar and banjo. She also writes a mean lyric ideally suited to the roadhouse circuit and has surrounded herself with some highly accomplished musicians. Ms. Kerr's banjo work is precise and stands out well against the rocking background of her rip-snorting band. Her use of the instrument on blues numbers where it doesn't logically seem to belong is unusually inventive and intriguing, almost Taj Mahal-like. Coupled with Kerr's no-prisoners harmonica playing, Marisa Martinez's fiddle work, Phillip Milner's dexterous macho guitar style, a fine rhythm section of Kenny Green on drums and Ed Ivey on bass, the delicate and soulful accordion of Henry Salva (on 'Tijuana Waltz'), and transcendental steel guitar stylings, the Jenny Kerr Band has one of the most unique sounds around. Although Ms. Kerr has never been to Austin, the album has a distinct Austin feel to it with big pull-no-punches guitar licks, superior musicianship, and plenty of performing-is-a-joy, we're-a-working-band attitude. You get the idea that this band doesn't take any short cuts and that in their live performances they don't take any songs off to rest. On the title track co-producer Milner, who excels throughout the album, sounds like an honor graduate of the Delbert McClinton Institute of Roadhouse Funk as the band blasts through a countrified rocker with a clever tongue-in-cheek lyric. This track sets the Austin-ized tone for the entire album with its spirited playing and Kerr's don't-mess-with-me vocal delivery. I woke up this morning with the same old mess In the same old town, wearin' the same old dress Tired of making do with second best And I'm tired of saying no when I mean yes Train's coming 'round and I'm gonna catch it Party's going on and I'm gonna crash it Check's in my pocket and I'm gonna cash it 'Cause I've got an itch and I'm gonna scratch it. The beauty of this cut and the way this band delivers it is that there is none of that cutesy Dixie Chick Nashville hyper-produced smoothness or coyness. If Ms. Kerr feels like growling at the dogs, she growls. If she wants to rock out, there's no holding back. Her musical concepts and theories are closer to Doug Sahm or Marcia Ball than to the Chicks. 'Pony' sees the band working out on a slow, deep-grooved country blues. Milner plays some nasty electrified Robert Johnson licks and Kerr, who claims to have been "a blues baby," demonstrates here blues shouter chops. This cut will bring those Janis Joplin chill bumps to the back of your neck. The band's cover of Gentry's 'Mississippi Delta' is as down-and-dirty and Mississippi backwoods as the works of polk-salad swamp music pioneer Tony Joe White and as groove heavy as Credence Clearwater Revival's classic 'Born on the Bayou.' The beauty of this track and the way it is played and recorded is that it has cross-genre appeal. While it is perfect for Americana radio, it would also work on some country and adult rock stations. This is absolutely choice material and it provides a thrill for Bobbie Gentry fans to hear her highly under-rated and under-appreciated work revived in such faithful fashion. 'I Wanna Be Rich' is another tongue-in-cheek lament played in straight country fashion and chock full of catchy lyrics. After suffering the indignity of being unable to afford a cabin in the pines "for my sweetie pie" and receiving a letter from the IRS saying among other things "the less I made the more I'd have to pay and if I had no dough I'd owe him even more 'cause that's the American way," Ms. Kerr takes a straight line to the solution. Black Bart and Jesse James turned to a life of crime They had a trick to get rich quick ­ they didn't waste no time The only boss they had was a sawed-off 20-gauge Got more sense than tryin' to make the rent on minimum wage On 'Clear A Path,' the band works somewhere between country blues and jug-band-on-steroids music. Kerr does a train wreck harmonica solo, bending notes all over the scale, while Milner again smokes his strings trying to keep pace. The message to the offending male is that he'd best clear a path because this woman's leaving. 'Tijuana Waltz,' a sad, lilting story told through jaded eyes, has a Tish Hinojosa feel. Kerr doesn't portray Tijuana as a California playground, she paints it with dark, gritty colors full of pathos and pity and with danger and corruption always close at hand. They'll sell you dope and girls and watches and ice cream And bright shiny rings that turn pretty girls' fingers to black You can drown your heart in tequila for just a few pesos And if you should die, boy, they'll bury you out in back Operator, please reverse the charges for this call I can't remember my own name but I'm learning the Tijuana waltz 'If I Had Wings' is a soft, delicately sultry, acoustic longing-for-love song that hits the same vein that Susan Tedeschi's surprise off-kilter blues hit 'You Need To Be With Me' struck. With no drums, electric bass or electric lead guitar, the steel guitar is heartbreakingly mournful and its interplay with Kerr's subtle banjo and Marisa Martinez's weeping fiddle will bring tears. Ms. Kerr's voice is so sultry and resignedly subdued that we need the banjo and steel guitar to remind us that this is a country song at heart, as Ms. Kerr's vocal delivery is straight out of the blue-eyed-soul school, despite the country instrumental flavoring. This arrangement has been touched by genius. On the raucous roadhouse country rocker, 'When I Get Home,' Ms. Kerr gets into her sassiest, raunchiest vocal mode and the band really lets it out. Ms. Kerr's banjo work is exquisite in the rock context, and guitarist Milner shows that he measures up with the best at his instrument. Don't take my word for it ­ take my wife's. The Jenny Kerr Band is the real deal if you like unpretentious but well played roadhouse country, blues and rock. This is one of those records that will put a smile on your face and a wiggle in your get-along. They may be from San Francisco, but the Jenny Kerr Band could pass for musical Texans any time. * Better scratch your "Itch" before this band gets "discovered" and doubles the price. Head on over to www.jennykerr.com and you can buy the record and see Ms. Kerr in her leopard skin pillbox cowgirl hat. And those "ITCH" T-shirts? Well.. I never! Contact William Michael Smith at: wms-at-rockzilla.net

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