reviews

An impressive debut from this Northeastern troubadour combines musical genres with catchy tunes and showmanship.

Sometimes it takes over thirty years to become an overnight sensation. Patrick Stanfield Jones has been refining his blues, country rock, folk and jazz repertoire with determination and purpose. He has performed with his own band in the New England area, toured with national theatre companies, and even sung tenor in classical choirs, delving into Mozart and Beethoven.
Not surprisingly, Stanfield’s debut, A Heart and an Open Road reflects an experienced and confident musician. The opening title track gets the album off to a flying start. This ebullient rocker is punctuated by crisp guitar solos, and strong polished singing. A rockabilly blues number, “Hammer “conjures up a 50′s Memphis sound, with a growling vocal, rhythmic acoustic guitar and harmonica adjunct. As a change of pace, Stanfield offers a jump swing original, “Crazy “Bout You”, performed with a vintage 1934 Gibson L4, and driven by a funky tenor and baritone sax combination. Delicate sentiment illuminates “If You Were My Baby”, and a raunchy (blaring sax, guitar, and “altered” electronic voice) “Yo Do De Do” exhibit opposing views of love.

Covers have a distinct and unconventional presence. “Sunshine of Your Love”, an iconic acid blues hit, receives a jazzier rendition with a smooth guitar line (possibly a homage to Wes Montgomery), organ solo, and saxophone presence. Stanfield pays tribute to the Cream, while avoiding imitation. In covering the standard, “The Best Is Yet To Come”, comparisons with Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett will be impossible, due to the hard-edged guitar, and virtual punk vocal. Perhaps the standout translation is the Mike Guaranga amusing sketch of heartbreak, “The Whiskey (Don’t Bring Me Down)”. The mood is etched in a burlesque musical tone, complemented by the authentic, skilled vocals.

With a bountiful thirteen tracks, and nearly fifty-five minutes, the listener will get an opportunity to experience a singer/songwriter in great depth.

-Robbie Gerson, Audiophile Audition

Patrick Stanfield Jones’ debut CD, A Heart and an Open Road, is the culmination of years of experience.
Jones has been a performer for more than thirty years and his debut album sounds mature because of it. It tackles original tunes as well as the classic songs “Sunshine of Your Love” and “The Best is Yet to Come.” While there are several genres included in A Heart and an Open Road, Jones shows a mastery of all of them. The pacing of the album is strong and ordered well as Jones changes tempos without a hitch.

A Heart and an Open Road begins with the title track which follows the essence of country-rock or
rockabilly styles. The song sets up the strong guitar solos from Jones. I love the tempo increase right at the end of the track and almost wished that the section lasted longer. The track “Hammer” is a great example of how Jones can create a timeless sound. The song could fit with the 50s Sun Records sound and could be comparable to artists like Carl Perkins. Yet the song has a modern relatability. The addition pipe organ to “Yo Do De Do” is both humorous and an interesting parallel to the idea of a youthful relationships. The most commercial of all the songs has to be “Changing of the Guard.” Jones has found the essence of a good pop/rock song: pertinent and catchy lyrics, a very accessible guitar solo, and passionate vocals. The song is a strong ending to a wonderful album.

-blogcritics

A True Blues Act Plays Times Square Venue

Concert Review: Patrick Stanfield Jones

(Courtesy of Motema Music)

It would probably be quite a challenge to keep a club exclusively dedicated to the blues open for business in the Times Square neighborhood. Still the supposed blues influences of a lot of acts that play B.B. King’s Blues Club on 42nd Street seem a bit tenuous. Happily this was not the case with Patrick Stanfield Jones and his band, who played the King’s room recently as part of a triple bill that also included the electric roots group McMule and the Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen. As can be heard on his latest CD, “A Heart and an Open Road,” Jones is a legitimate blues rocker with a honky-tonk spirit and the occasional invigorating hints of jazz influences.

You can definitely hear the roadhouse in the opening title track. Jones’s guitar ranges into legitimate rock-and-roll territory, but Steven “Muddy” Roues’s harmonica still keeps the proceedings grounded in the blues. The following, “No One Ever Tells You,” a blues lament covered by Ruth Brown and B.B. King himself, is a perfect showcase for Jones’s laidback vocals. He definitely pulls out the blues licks here, with Rave Tesar adding grease on the organ.

Shrewdly Jones resists unleashing his inner guitar hero on Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love.” Instead his easy-going, idiosyncratic rendition and the groovy arrangement give the hoary rock standard an appealingly fresh sound. However, the hard rocking take on Cy Coleman’s “The Best is Yet to Come,” previously covered by the likes of Tony Bennett and Sinatra, frankly sounds a bit gimmicky.

The addition of a jazz horn-line, consisting of Kit McClure on tenor saxophone and Erik Lawrence on baritone, also lends a funky texture to Jones’s group in concert. On “Road,” they are best showcased trading off on “Crazy About You,” a ruckus swinger inspired by Dizzy Gillespie’s, “Land of Oobla Dee,” which is a real highlight of the session.

“Road” features a diverse selection of Americana sounds, including a sensitive country-style ballad, “If You Were My Baby.” Still Jones and his band are at their best when delving deep into the blues-rock bag, as on the old school drinking song, “Whiskey (Don’t Bring Me Down).” Evidently someone who has seen a lot of tough times, Jones appropriately ends with an optimistic sounding up-tempo country-rock empowerment anthem, “Changing of the Guard.” Wickedly catchy, it is a very effective set closer.

As someone who writes about coming through adversity, Jones’s music is clearly quite compatible with the musical therapy concept of Motema Music founder and president Jana Herzen, who also contributed background vocals to “Road.” The resulting session is a rootsy, bluesy excursion into the roadhouses and juke joints of American song. Honest and energetic, “Road” is now available at fine music retailers everywhere.

Joe Bendel blogs on jazz and cultural issues at www.jbspins.blogspot.com and coordinated the Jazz Foundation of America’s instrument-donation campaign for musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Wednesday, June 09, 2010