Stewed Roots
In The Middle of This
Stewed Records and Roots
also available on cd baby
This is a quiet, mostly acoustic record that has some 13 mostly well written songs on it by these two Canadian women: Jeff (Jennifer) Hale and Neva Tesolin. They split the songwriting chores, Jeff wrote five of the tunes and Neva wrote seven, and if you're quick you realize that is only 12, and there is one song, “Dirty Work”, they wrote together. Jeff does the lead vocals on all but one of the tunes and she does have the strong more pleasant voice, and Neva does supply some nice harmony vocals. Jeff plays guitar, Neva plays piano, piano accordion, concertina, and octave mandolin; and the other musicians filling out the sound are Bob Hewus on stand-up bass, Al Cross on drums, Rick Whitelaw lead acoustic guitar, Don Reed on fiddle and violin, Jessie Tesolin on cello and Curly Boy Stubbs on guitar, banjo, ukulele, mandolin, percussion, and vocals
The songs are about real life and real situations and some are truly heart-felt and yet somehow they don’t see to grab hold of anything and stick to you. It is a very odd feeling as you know there is great care and love poured into this project and yet there is not a hook or barb to grab onto, nothing to hang on to. The most outstanding moments are when Jessie Tesolin comes in on cello, which seems odd and yet doesn’t feel odd. Please remember these are my reactions to this disc but may not be yours. It is a blend of folk, Celtic, and Country music.