The new release by The Mike Jacoby Electric Trio arrives with lively words of welcome.
After three solo releases of his own, in 2019 Mike Jacoby teamed up with Don Read and Mike Levin to form the Mike Jacoby Electric Trio. Welcome to the Family is their third full-length release, after 2023’s Long Haul and 2024’s Rocket Fuel Logic. Although a band project, this is very much the brainchild of Jacoby, who not only took up songwriting duties but also recorded, produced and mixed the latest release. The album was mastered by three-time Grammy Award-winning engineer Gavin Lurssen, who received accolades for work including the soundtrack of Coen Brothers film O Brother Where Art Thou, and an album by Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant in collaboration with Alison Krauss.
While their sound has often been rooted in alt-country with rock and blues elements, in Welcome to the Family the band sticks to their core identity while still branching out: doubling down on the rock elements, with energetic, flippant songs reminiscent of bands like Presidents of the USA and The Replacements, but also featuring slower, more pensive material. The tone ranges from earnest to tongue-in-cheek, and there’s a latent eccentricity in Jacoby’s vocals that occasionally calls Weird Al Yankovic to mind, especially in the track Red, White and Blues, with its peculiar nod to God Save the King.
It may not be uncharted territory, but there is a basic truth about this album that elevates the experience: it sounds like it was made by three people who have a good time playing together, who are glad to be alive and making music, and happy to provide words of welcome and sympathy along the way.
Good cheer is the operative word. And it shows.
