Idaho based singer-songwriter Eilen Jewell follows-up 2017’s Down Hearted Blues with her eighth studio album Gypsy – her first collection of originals songs since 2015’s Sundown Over Ghost Town. The latest LP features Jewell’s honeyed vocals and clever songwriting, all the while pushing boundaries with new guest musicians, instrumentations, and sounds to her music. Alongside her normal quartet there are five backing vocalists as well as fiddle, pedal steel, sax, trumpet, trombone, and a musical saw. Jewell is also for the first time credited with electric guitar and has picked up the organ for Gypsy. Album highlights include: the Hank Williams-esque track “These Blues”; a cover of honky tonk classic “You Cared Enough To Lie”; the swamp rocker “Crawl”; the brooding ballad “Working Hard For Your Love”; the bluesy “Witness”; the women’s rights protest song “79 Cents (The Meow Song)”; the folk number “Hard Times”; and the smooth, rambling track “Miles to Go.” Eilen Jewell’s Gypsy is another top-notch Americana album that is witty, classy, full of style and a pleasure to listen to. – Written by JFelton
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