Search - Doug Jayne :: Voices in the Wind

"Voices In The Wind" is going to be a CD you will play over

CutnPaste | No Cal | 12/03/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Where are all the songwriters? Long time passing..." (with apologies to Pete Seeger).



Anyone listening to contemporary music might wonder where the songwriters have gone. I mean the songwriters who write songs we can actually listen to, understand the words, and feel the music. There are still some around, outside of the cacophony we hear on the radio or watch on MTV, but most of them don't carry beyond a limited genre audience or local venues.



Then there is Doug Jayne, whose latest CD "Voices In The Wind" has just been released. Every time I think Doug Jayne, and any of his numerous band incarnations, can't get any better... they do. I've been listening to his songs since he first started performing in Sonoma County almost twenty years ago. I've watched a moderately talented guitar player with a pleasant voice and some good lyrics evolve, not only as a singer-songwriter-musician, but also as a very important support for local and area music and musicians.



Now comes "Voices In The Wind". I put the CD on, poured myself a glass of Barefoot, and sat down to listen to another Doug Jayne performance. Expecting a familiar sound, at first I thought I had the wrong CD cued up. Having checked to see that it really was Doug Jayne's CD, I was awed by the quality of the songs and the music. All but three of the songs on the CD are original Doug Jayne compositions. They are by far the richest and ripest songs I've ever heard from this eclectic guy. With a stunning cast of superb local musicians and singers, he has produced a sound both unique and exciting, professional without being over-produced. Even songs by Warren Zevon and Bob Dylan have a fresh, powerful, and far more lyrical quality than ever I've heard by anyone.



I've heard Doug's music described as "middle aged angst". There is nothing middle about this CD. Not middle aged, not middle of the road, not middle class. The music comes out of a fully lived life, a life still being fully lived. And at a time when we are all watching our friends and loved ones leave, Doug's music is full of sentiment and sense, about life and love and loss, without being stickily sentimental.



Starting with a radical approach to the cover and liner art--kind of a wonderful puzzle including caricatures of all the voices he hears in his head--through every note in every song on the CD, something has broken through here. If I believed in such things, I'd say that Doug Jayne et all have arrived! "Voices In The Wind" is going to be a CD you will play over and over.



Somebody please nominate "Voices In The Wind" for a Grammy?



Donna-Lee Phillips"