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Rockin' Jake: Full Time Work |
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New Orleans
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Thursday, 09 February 2006 09:53 |
Rockin Jake
Full Time Work
Zuluzu Records
By John Sinclair
New Orleans harmonica man Larry Rockin Jake Jacobs a musical descendant of the great Marion Little Walter Jacobs has advanced several major steps since releasing his first CD, Let's Go Get Em, on Rabadash Records in the mid- 90s.
Jake's taken his dance-oriented rockin blues show on the road and logged thousands of miles of travel throughout the USA, vending many copies of his second album, Badmouth (on his own Zuluzu label), as well as tiny harmonica necklaces, little bottles of Badmouth hot sauce and other imaginative custom products.
The rigors of the road lead to constant changes in personnel, but Jake always fields a hot, hard-rocking ensemble and wisely keeps his virtuostic harp in the forefront of things. He's singing more now and better, too! and he continues crafting his own well-tailored songs out of the raw materials of his life experience.
Full Time Work, Jake's new Zuluzu release, benefits from the deft touch of producer Brian Stoltz, whose over-the-top guitar solo work is also featured prominently throughout. Stoltz collaborates on several of the tunes as well, including the irresistible lead-off cut, Only Love Can Conquer Hate, with Jake rapping out the lyrics hip-hop stylee.
Other co-writers on the album include Jim McCormick, Sam Price, T.J. Wheeler and Angelo Nocentelli (yes, he's Leo's younger brother). All the members of the recording group Jacobs, Stoltz, keyboardist John Gros, bassist Ron Johnson and drummer Doug Belote contribute to the appropriately mournful instrumental, Blues for N.Y.C.
Jake's current concerns are laid out in a three-song series of truly heart-felt road songs that are positioned 2-3-4 in the batting order: Full Time Work, Part Time Pay, Hit the Highway and Goin Back to the Big Easy. One may almost smell the stale beer and cigarette smoke of the roadhouse in the afternoon when the van wheezes up after a 500-mile ride across some remote section of America and the battle-weary band members crawl out into the sunlight to face another night of underpaid and improperly unappreciated musical employment and the immense sense of utter relief one feels as the number of miles home to New Orleans shrinks ever smaller.
Slippin Away is a vocal duet between Irene Sage and Theryl Houseman DeClouet introduced by Jake's eloquent mouth harp; both singers sound terrific, and the band cooks nicely behind them. Jake has a second three-song set of novelty numbers The Hot Sauce Song, a tuneful commercial for his own brand of the fiery condiment; a remake of Show Me Your Pretties, a topical (or maybe topless is the better word) tune that suffers here from the absence of original lead singer Oliver Morgan; and Christmas Morning Blues, an amusing attempt at ironic humor that perhaps should have been essayed in half the time allotted.
The program ends with a stately reading of Amazing Grace which spotlights Jake's strength as an eloquently evocative harmonica soloist and the atmospheric keyboards of Papa John Gros and it's a beautiful way to close this eminently listenable album.
New Orleans
April 3, 2002
(c) 2002, 2006 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
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