Featuring a stellar cast of musicians behind him, Jeremiah Johnson’s third album ‘Humming Of The Axis’ hits the mark with foot stomping grooves and tales of love and peculiar characters one crosses in day to day life. Recorded at Big Sister Studios with producer Mark Myers and later mastered at Lurssen Mastering in Hollywood by Ruben Cohen, Jeremiah Johnson’s latest effort has a definite focus on ‘the take’, with a live band feel prominent throughout the album.
“I wanted to make sure this album didn’t sound like it was produced, I wanted it to sound like it was recorded. I’d been listening to lots of recordings from Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Johnny Cash, Jeff Lang, Jeff Healey and over the period of writing the songs I realized they all recorded live and had a special quality because of that reason” said Jeremiah Johnson recently.
The 11 track ‘Humming Of The Axis’ starts strong with the foot stomping hand clapping opener ‘Somebody After You’ exploding out with a 2/4 shuffle accompanied by Jeremiah’s story telling lyrics. It truly does set an upbeat tone for the entire album.
The second track and first single ‘Cracks of the Concrete’ highlights the album’s title in the first verve with emotive drum rolls and nicely placed piano chords. The ending featuring producer Mark Myers signature ambient reverb and delays on the vocal harmonies
A strong Delta Blues influence is heard on Jerimiah’s guitar work with songs such as Staggar Lee and Bare Free showing the troubadours great musical talent.
‘Bellenden Ker’; originally released on Jeremiah’s Johnson’s 2012 album ‘Postcards’, is given a full band feel with backing musician Steven ‘Papa’ Stanley, Tristan Barton and Simon McMennamin shinning brightly on the re-release.
The instrumental ‘Two Left Feet’ sounds like the perfect soundtrack for an outback driving scene while the romp stomping ‘Church Is In’ has a hint of Ash Grunwald about it with a heavy bass/drum groove driven by a distorted slide guitar.
The album closes on the upbeat ‘Really All Of Us’ which tells the story of a character named Joe who ‘brews his own beer and drinks at home’. The song is a fitting end to the narrative approach of ‘Humming Of The Axis’. Start to the finish a very well balanced album which highlights many of the great talents of one of Cairn’s finest singer songwriters.
Jeremiah Johnson – Humming Of The Axis available from Travel Beats, The Flying Monkey Café and all of Jeremiah’s gigs. Check out www.jeremiahjohnson.com
http://https://youtu.be/Gl0gpkaLYDU
Mitch Sullivan
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