Artist: Jack Pearson
Album: Live | Are You Listening? (2 CDs)
Label: Candlefly Records
Release Date: 07.25.2018
To twist a worn-out cliché, if you don’t know Jack Pearson, you don’t know jack—at least as far as consummate guitarists go. Google the YouTube video for Project Yosemite / “Dreams” and bear witness to the breathtaking beauty of America’s West set to Pearson’s moving brilliance as a member of The Allman Brothers Band. In the 20 years since that particular gig, Pearson has been a thriving mainstay around Nashville and beyond, playing countless sessions and shows in all manner of styles. These are his sixth and seventh albums, and like the first five, stand as distinct documents of his talents and vision. Pearson’s desire to present something for everyone exhibits magnificently throughout the altogether 3 ½ hours of music.
Faith, hope, and grace dominate the studio set, Are You Listening? The buoyant “It’s All about Love” begins it with the type of positive outlook that defines the artist and his works. Pearson quite evidently believes, and he conveys the word soothingly in “Just Believe,” and graciously during “What Did I Do.” But there’s hillbilly heaven, too, in “Good Sugar,” and in “Who Does That,” he addresses one of today’s harsh realities in rough and tumble R&B mode. For the title song, Pearson sat alone at the piano—he plays every instrument on the album—as if on a stage long after the club doors were shuttered, softly pondering the joy and tears of life, and asking for an answer. Powerful, to say the least.
Live displays everything that makes Jack Pearson a treasure, spread generously across two CDs. His trio (Pearson on guitar and in warm tenor voice, Charles Treadway on B3 organ, and Joshua Hunt on drums) produces everything needed to go to town with passion and depth in the groove. Pearson astounds with his supple, yet stinging guitar in every one of the many varied settings. “Hold What You Got” ignites the blues, but a long, luminous take of “As the Years Go Passing By,” calms them. “World Gone Crazy” stomps with James Brown funk, “She’s a Pretty Pickpocket” flows on a bed of jazz like Wes Montgomery with Jimmy Smith, and “Cherokee Rain” recalls Ronnie Earl by way of its breezy salsa, bursting refrains, and fiery guitar. Only “Right Where We Belong” appears in both the live and studio settings, but in wildly differing forms. Pearson closes the program with Gregg Allman’s “Please Call Home,” offering solemn, soulful love to a brother. Amen.
—Tom Clarke
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