Jackson Howard - Just for the Mystery (2017)

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Written by David Shouse, posted by blog admin

Singer/songwriters are a dime a dozen these days but good ones are a really rare commodity.  Jackson Howard proves that he is the good category with his second album, Just for the Mystery.  It’s largely an acoustic affair with a showcase placed on Howard’s finely aged, well-fermented vocals which glide through the tracks with potency and energy.  The journey taken here explores tender bits of folk, grizzled yet highly melodic country, groovy blues, playful jazz and just enough rock n’ roll to switch things up. 

Rock is the order of the day on the lively title-track with its electric guitar expositions running roughshod over acoustic bliss and tautly played rhythms (full of swinging beats and walking bass licks).  It allows for Jackson’s voice to crest several hills and reach its full potential throughout as he sings with the chops of a well-oiled soul/blues artist that’s right in his element with such a twitchy track.  “A Place in this World” draws down the sun in starry sky displays of melodic acoustic guitar, blue-eyed vocals and expertly controlled tempos.  The chorus rocks thing up slightly, in a more adult-contemporary kind of way than the straight mainstream rockin’ of the title track, but reels your ears in and keep them there when that glorious chorus comes on.

“Run with Me” is softer still until the last 30 seconds and the tune’s aura invokes an after midnight feel where the guitars serenely ebb alongside Howard’s emotionally charged musings.  “Hideaway” is an uplifting country/folk duet where the acoustics adopt a tangible southern twang and the vintage vocal duet with Mandy Cook reminds one of when Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton would intertwine their melodies (as they did so lavishly with “Islands in the Stream”)… it’s not EXACTLY that kind of song, but the material reminds one of those days. 

A sizzling Led Zeppelin cover, “The Battle for Evermore,” reinstates Howard’s tougher blues side and thanks to Rachel Horter navigating Fairport Convention’s Sandy Denny’s harmonies, we have a solid winner that relishes its muscular acoustic guitars and rhythmic backbone. 

Elsewhere, the album stays cool and collected thanks to countrified, acoustic burners such as “Surround You,” “Driftwood,” “You Are More” and “Tribute.”  The jazz rocker “Dizzy” interjects another altogether different musical feel that pairs nicely with the piano/vocal ballad “If I Fall’s” glimmering hope.  A rowdy, rocked-out recreation of EMF’s “Unbelievable” ends the record in all out rock n’ roll excess, cementing Just for the Mystery as a recording bursting with  musical surprises.