The Jets are gone from Winnipeg, but the city can still boast of harbouring one of the country's best music acts: The Wailin' Jennys THE WAILIN' JENNYS
40 Days
Festival Rating 5 stars
The Jets are gone from Winnipeg, but the city can still boast of harbouring one of the country's best music acts: The Wailin' Jennys.
Coming together two years ago at a Winnipeg music store, the trio of Ruth Moody, Cara Luft and Nicky Mehta are musical sisters who write, sing and play exquisite music together. 40 Days opens with Moody's One Voice, a lovely composition on which Moody's lead vocal resembles Alison Krauss, and where Kevin Breit colours the spaces with his mandolin and mandocello. The traditional Saucy Sailor has an Irish lilt, and Mehta's Arlington gets a dark, rhythmic pulse highlighted by the women's vocal harmonies and the evocative violin solo by Richard Moody.
The Jennys' version of Old Man remains true to the Neil Young original, right down to the world-weariness in Cara Luft's voice. Special mention goes out to Breit, who brightens the record with string contributions: dobro on the funky Beautiful Dawn, and electric guitar on This Is Where.