Jesse Brewster “The Lonely Pines”

A very assured outing by a roots music renaissance man who can do it all.

To be adept at Americana in the full sense of what this genre is supposed to represent, you simply just can’t be the next-door folkie or singer/songwriter. You have to incorporate quite a number of genres into your music, from rock and R&B, to even jazz or touches of what could be considered classical music.

On the evidence of ‘The Lonely Pines,’ his fifth album, Californian Jesse Brewster doesn’t seem to have that problem. First of all, he’s got all the key folk/country elements of Americana down to a pat. Tracks like ‘Kicking and Screaming’ have that ‘natural’ Americana flow that just falls so easy on the ear. But Brewster is obviously no stranger either countrified R&B of Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham or’ bluesified’ Randy Newman, as with ‘Bitter Pill’. He slips in some excellent touches to his songs that make them both complete and satisfying.

It is no wonder because it turns out that Brewster is some sort of musical jack of all trades, as he also made a ‘pure’ R&B record, plays in a hard rock trio, and is developing a rock opera for Broadway. Oh, and he also works as a music instructor, produces and plays quite a number of instruments.

‘The Lonely Pines’ has all the elements that should make Brewster a household name with americana fans.