JPD Reviews

Lee Zimmerman

Entertainment News & Reviews

Miami, FL

Jon Pousette-Dart: Heart & Soul
(Little Big Deal Records)
Pousette-Dart Band was one of the also-rans of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, a group with a soft rock sound that found them in sync with the Eagles, James Taylor, Jackson Browne and the other soft-pop troubadours of that day and age. Unfortunately, despite a series of alluring albums, they never scaled the charts or earned the mass adulation accorded their contemporaries and sadly, they slowly faded into the recesses of an undeserved anonymity.

Fortunately, that didn’t dissuade Jon Pousette-Dart from releasing albums on his own, and while he’s only managed to attain a regional reach, the music remains every bit as engaging as his former band’s during its heyday. Heart & Soul, as the title implies, keeps to a mellow tone, a breezy, smooth sounding record that could find a good fit on today’s easy-listening radio play-lists. “After The Rain” in particular has a soft contemporary appeal, while harmony-drenched ballads such as “A Way to be with You” and “Blindman” easily bring to mind the gentle sway of Crosby Stills and Nash. He shakes up the proceedings by adding some swampy blues to the mix, notably with “In the Pocket,” “Morning Song” and “Shake Me,” and also tosses in the occasional instrumental to add a hint of variety. Mostly though, the album maintains its relaxed pace, a welcome respite in an otherwise over-cluttered world.

Heart & Soul likely won’t be found at your nearest mainstream CD store, so those interested will have to make the extra effort to track it down. Be assured that it’s well worth the quest.

The John Shelton Ivany Top 21

May 8th, 2005 to May 14th, 2005
Issue: #225
The John Shelton Ivany Top Twenty-One is published in 200 national
newspapers (copyright 2005 John Shelton Ivany).

***Political Album of The Week***

Jon Pousette-Dart "Heart & Soul" Ryko

    When the seventies petered out and the eighties skulked in, the
Pousette-Dart Band found themselves at the end of a four album run that had only whet the public's appetite for the singer-songwriter, guitarist and all around musical adventurer. Jon Pousette-Dart pushes boundaries, if not a few buttons, with Heart & Soul. On the electro blues number "My SUV," he satirizes the American obsession with larger is better. The diatribe sets it sights on everyone from the next door neighbors to the president. This politically motivated song stands out from the other mostly soft-blues rock tracks, as it drives through a Sunday morning jaunt around the block with an all American SUV lover. The hilarity and absurdity of the situation repeats throughout the chorus.
    The sweetly radio friendly "After The Rain" stands far from the
politically motivated "My SUV." This plaintiff song foreshadows the album's remainder of electro-based soft rock. The production is so clean and textured that even the gritty lyrics of "Can't Keep a Good Man Down" sound sweet. That may be a strength as even heavy and deep sentiments are kept light with the sound swirling around Pousette-Dart's voice. The southern wind breezes through the title track with a chord progression worthy of a Van Zant, or possibly it is just the ghost of CCR. "Shake Me," the only honest blues on the album, hits hard with its hook, and works around a grouping of down and dirty guitar plucks. The album lacks some of the Heart & Soul that a straight blues release should embody, but Poussette-Dart has not produced a blues album. He has, as always, melded several influences into one cohesive package; steeped in its roots and focused enough to catch a popular response.

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South Easton Massachusetts
MUSIC REVIEW
By JAYN.Miller

Pousette-Dart's appeal proves to be enduring

With or without a band, Jon Pousette-Dart has a sound that is all his own. His music, is immediate and intense, yet smoothly melodic and soothing. Much of it carries the energy of rock'n'roll, yet all of it brings the lyrical complexity of folk, with some blues accents and even some side trips to bluegrass. heaven.

There could be no doubting Pousette-Dart's enduring appeal after a near-sell-out crowd braved last night's snowstorm to hear him perform solo at Eas-ton's Blackthorne Tavern.

Pousette-Dart did two 65-minute sets, and aside from three songs where Abington's Mark Purcell guested on harmonica, he kept the crowd enthralled with only his lilting vocals and intricate guitar work.

Pousette-Dart has just finished a new album, "Sample This," on his own label, and Saturday night at Club Passim in Harvard Square he'll be playing a special 'pre-release party1 for the CD (which has a special video component playable on any computer). The official national release for "Sample This" isn't until February, but it's already available through his web site, www.pousette-dart.com. Last night's crowd liked the new material so much they bought every copy of the new disc he had.

Pousette-Dart is best-known as the leader of the Pousette-Dart Band which had four popular albums and several hits on Ihe Capitol label between 1976-80. Those folk-rocking cheslnuts still got a huge response last night, and the songwriter's new material is in a similar vein. Now based in New York City, Pousette-Dart has spent time in Nashville co-writing, and his latest work shows a polish that doesn't detract from the trademark sound.

"Fall on Me," one of the P-D Band's big hits, was an early set highlight, but in a radically new version, a laid-back, take on the old folk-rocker. Lowell George's "Roll 'Um Easy" got a bluesy treatment, with Pousette-Dart's guitar gently swinging through the melody. Pousette-Dart's guitar mastery was quietly showcased when he did an acoustic segment from Jimi Hendrix' "Little Wing" as introduction to his own jaunty ballad, "I'm the Man For You."

Pousette-Dart's shimmering, finger-picked guitar lines made the P-D Band hit "Freezing Hot" another high point. A special (real was the unreleased track from the lale-'70s called "Blind Man," a quiet vignette Pousette-Dart said he'd written about a man he saw selling comic books outside Bloomingdale's in New York City.

The Lowell George connection resurfaced with Little Feat's "Sailing Shoes," which featured some of Pousette-Dart's most driving guitar. The most stunning vocal dynamics Pousette-Dart's high-end, slightly raspy, baritone achieved impressive

While the band's old hit "Smile on Me" lacked the banjo/mandolin flavors of the original, the singer's own guitar helped make it close in terms of recreating the hit's flavor.

That would have made a nice show, but those were only the first set high lights. In the later set, Purcell, who hosts the open mikes every Wednesday at the Blackthorne and doubles as concert soundman, joined Pousette-Dartfor a soulful take on Sleepy John Estes' "If The River was Whiskey." Pousette-Dart's new tune, "Even Dirty Old Men Need Love," might be the sleeper hit on the new CD, an appealing look at love and life with a litany of humorous phrases that are, well, just a bit off-kilter.

Pousette-Dart used otherworldly reverb and bass string overtones to rum "Waiting Game" into a surreal delight. The new 'Tug of War" was a poignant \ look at loving a child after divorce. Purcell returned for a bluesy gallop I through "Look What Love Has Done," and a rip roaring rock blast of "Amnesia."

Pousette-Dart's new single is " 1,000 Miles from You," a road song that mixes his gently cascading finger-picked notes with his bittersweet vocal to potent effect. A lively "County Line" opened , with a quick "Stairway to Heaven" guitar quote. Pousette-Dart said the Blackthorne Tavern was his favorite room in the northeast.

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Dirty Linen
Oct. Nov. 2002

Jon Pousette-Dart "Sample This"

[self-produced] This album is schizo,

but in a good way. The music part was recorded both intimately laid back and hot in Pousette-Dart's home studio. Instrumentation is just enough to sound full — a harmonica accent here, some organ or concertina there. Think Jonathan Edwards hanging round the shanty with computer-assisted recording. There's an enhanced ROM part of the CD that includes sound bites, video clips, a photo montage, a narrated history of the artist, and more. Most songs were written by Pousette-Dart except for the two Little Feat covers ("Truck Stop Girl" and "Roll 'Em Easy") and the bouncy acoustic slide finish of Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me."(JLi)

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