CD: Jorma Kaukonen "Stars in My Crown"

Jorma's exploration of inventive American music began in 1965 backing Janis Joplin and later with classic bands Jefferson Airplace & Hot Tuna. Jorma continues the musical journey cooking up this tasty collection of down-home country blues, gospel and bluegrass, produced by Byron House.

Five years after Blue Country Heart, Stars in My Crown finds Jorma Kaukonen continuing and expanding on that Grammy-nominated work. It's again a relaxed setting, but the stylistic range has taken on a compelling diversity. Not generally a prolific writer, Kaukonen has written a welcome five of the disc's fourteen numbers this time out. They range from the perfect and prayerful opener "Overture: Heart Temporary," with its 12-piece string section holding his acoustic guitar and vocal aloft, to the lilting instrumental "A Life Well Lived." Kaukonen's choice of covers has left him room to make them his own, while also adding to the portrait of who he is as an artist, and how he got there. It would be right to expect a Rev. Gary Davis song on this album, and there are two of them, but it's his take on Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around" that amazes. It's an audacious choice for reinterpretation in which he both honors the original and finds a natural ease for his own voice. Throughout the entire set, the small and subtly varying ensemble plays with elegant style, peppered with occasional playful hijinks. --David Greenberger

Track List:

1. Heart Temporary

2. Fur Peace Rag

3. By The Rivers Of Babylon

4. Living In The Moment

5. Late Breaking News

6. Come Back, Baby

7. Mighty Hard Pleasure

8. No Demon

9. There's A Table Sitting In Heaven

10. The Man Comes Around

11. A Life Well Lived

12. Will There Be Any Stars In My Crown

13. Preacher Picked The Guitar

14. Instrumental Reprise- Will There Be Any Stars In My Crown