Jessi Colter
Out of The Ashes
Shoutfactory - 97640
visit Jessi's website
available on Amazon
This took time to come to fruition, but this was more than worth the weight. On this 12 song disc contains she either wrote or co-wrote all but 3 of the songs, and there she left the chore to such tunesmiths as Bob Dylan, Tony Joe White and Civilla White/ Charles Gabriel. It is a disc that relates to the past and helps with what life has brought, and looks to the brightness of the future for this woman who defies any niche created for her. There is Gospel music, Country, Roots, and perhaps the best non-Dylan rendering of “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” to be heard. Don Was (who also played upright bass) produced this disc with a sensitivity that brings forth the best in this most expressive singer. Listen to the hope and despair that is so forthcoming in “The Phoenix Rises,” either capable of overpowering the song, and yet both, though free to fly, are true to the title. Jessi is known as the wife of Waylon Jennings and during most of the time they were together she was content to remain in the background, yet when they got together she was indeed the bigger name and seller of music.
There is a heart felt moment on the disc when she does trade lead singing with Tony Joe and her late husband on the poignant Tony Joe White penned, “Out of the Rain.” She closes out the disc with her son, Shooter Jennings, which brings the disc back to its cycle of life and death and the hope in the journey they hold forth for all. Faith is as strong in this woman as she has displayed strength in living this life. As a bonus you have here some of the best photographs of both Jessi and her beloved Sonoran Desert. A beautiful and strong disc that was worth the long wait. Dylan’s “Simple Twist of Fate.” He uses the members of Ollabelle on a couple of tracks and they seem to be the strongest ones on the disc. The guitar playing is tasty and this is someone I would keep a sharp eye on as he matures and his voice carries more of what his eyes have seen.