Winnipeg's Wailin' Jennys - singer/songwriters Cara Luft, Nicky Mehta and Ruth Moody - apparently proved greater than the sum of their parts with an ad hoc gathering in a hometown music store a couple of years back Roots
The Wailin' Jennys
40 Days (Jericho Beach)
Winnipeg's Wailin' Jennys - singer/songwriters Cara Luft, Nicky Mehta and Ruth Moody - apparently proved greater than the sum of their parts with an ad hoc gathering in a hometown music store a couple of years back, a string of highly praised festival performances as a trio last summer, and a quickly recorded six-song CD that got lots of folk radio airplay and media attention in 2003. Their first full-length CD, featuring nine pieces penned separately by the three principals, two covers (Neil Young's "Old Man" and John Hiatt's "Take It Down"), and one traditional song ("Saucy Sailor") fulfills that early promise. The compositions are strong, well-formed melodies with solid structures, well-turned lyrical phrases and clever rhymes, and a general whimsical air, and accompaniment by guitarist Kevin Breitt, bassist Andrew Downing, violinist Richard Moody and drummers Christian Dugas and Mark Mariash substantially augments the trio's own interesting instrumental work (guitars, dobro, harmonica, piano, accordian, bodhran). But the real appeal here is their close, luscious harmonies.