Yes, anything can take root in California, in the land of Weed and Wine, as Jacobs sings on an aptly titled track from the album. She has been creating her own niche of roots rock ‘n’ roll since before Emily Zuzik first recommended her when I arrived at my first SXSW where and when they were both in town for my first big shindig after moving to the ATX in 2004.
Recorded live in Brooklyn in 2017, on a similar record cutter that Sam Phillips used in Memphis, probably a Presto 6N, a machine I have wanted for a very long time but sells for a few grand out of my price range. I seem to remember Jacobs selling a few test pressings from these recordings a few years ago, but I was never able to purchase any at the time.
While this may have been warmly recorded in urbane Brooklyn, some of the music seems to be quintessentially agriculturally modern California, like Jacobs herself who was born and raised in Northern California, where I am also from. The music is fitting flavor for both locales, and “Weed and Wine” seems to be a timeless description of the Golden State. It’s a harmonizing twanger that tells a visual story of farm, frolic, and fitness of an organic diet. It’s important folks, however you can get it.
The whole album tells a story of coming of age, evolving, and carving out your own place in the historical record. “We Always Come Home,” a folk tale, is a story of a tour and perhaps and life-long love. The lyrical trajectory calls to mind one of the plotlines of Almost Famous, leaving the road to the road and home to home, but here the adventure, the toll, and the glory are understood, accepted and entwined within the lifelong adventure that continues at home.
This is really more that just an Americana or Country album, and I so loathe to categorize artistic endeavors that have been co-opted by music publishers and record labels for nigh on one hundred years at this point. “Purple State” talks of everyday struggles, job loss, and little triumphs that mean everything to some of us as we fight for survival, acceptance, and even glory over a pedestrian, mundane, and sometimes incredible lifetime.
A Little Blue runs the gamut of glory, peace, struggles worth fighting for and sadness. This may or may not be a Country album, and it may not be a perfect Country album to paraphrase the David Allen Coe song that was recorded once upon a time, but it’s a damn fine album. You should give it a try. She has released few since this one, and there are many that date back a few years, so there’s plenty to choose from at her website. Enjoy.
RadioMike, 27 February 2023