For his first album in five years, Baltimore native Cris Jacobs brought in a slew of guests to help lay down his blend of Bluegrass, folk, and blues, including Jerry Douglas (who also produced the record), Lee Ann Womack, Billy Strings, Sam Bush, Lindsay Lou, and The McCrary Sisters. He also pulled in members of The Infamous Stringdusters to serve as his backing band. The result is a compelling, collaborative effort that plays out like a hootenanny. The tracks were all recorded live, which helped to solidify that impromptu vibe.
Nowhere is that more evident than on the Lou duet “Work Song (I Can Still Sing),” a laid-back, loose folk number that perfectly contrasts their voices, or the title track, with Bush playing mandolin. Elsewhere, on “Queen Of The Avenue,” with The McCrary Sisters and Bush again, they lay down a decidedly slinky groove on a very unsexy topic about slinging dope in Baltimore to make ends meet. The song also highlights Jacobs’s deft ability to create endearing characters in just three minutes. Baltimore and the characters that inhabit that city pop up again and again throughout the record on songs like “Poor Davey,” featuring Billy Strings on guitar and co-vocals, and “Pimlico,” a rambling song about a gambler’s luck running out at the horse track.
The record closes on “Everybody’s Lost,” a surprisingly restrained tune given all that precedes it. Still, it’s also one of the best moments here, one of the few times on the record where Jacobs turns the focus on himself versus writing about others. “I’m always trying to get better, and it never seems like things are where they’re supposed to be,” he said recently. “The realization that it’s normal to feel like you’re not where you want to be––that everybody else has this same sort of feeling they can’t explain––maybe it makes it easier.”
The album was written after Jacobs finally confronted years of depression, sought professional help, and got into the suitable head space to make him a better husband, dad, and clearly a better musician if One Of These Days is any indication. You can hear that clear-headedness in “Everybody’s Lost.”
The music here is loose without losing its focus and boasts some of the most captivating characters he has ever written about – even on the rare track when that character is himself.
