Jill Barber - For All Time (CD)

All Music Guide

At first listen, Halifax, Nova Scotiabased singer/songwriter Jill Barber sounds like merely the latest in a lineage that stretches back at least as far as her fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell. Her debut album For All Time is a familiar blend of folk, country, soft rock, and occasional torchy jazz influences, along with one oddball ringer, the Melaniestyle Tin Pan Alley throwback (complete with tootling clarinet) "When I'm Makin' Love to You." That playful tune is an early indication that Barber isn't interested in being just the next Norah Jones, and closer listens reveal a stronger talent. Foremost, Barber has an outstanding voice, smoky and soulful with both a country twang and the selfassuredly idiosyncratic phrasing of a jazz singer. Secondly, her lyrics generally avoid singer/songwriter cliché, and tunes like the shuffling folkrocker "Hard Line" and the sorrowful lullaby "Goodnight Sweetheart," with its pedal steel and Floyd Cramerstyle piano part, are melodic and instantly memorable.... Fans of Canadiana will appreciate the album's special guests, including Luke Doucet, members of longrunning countryrockers Blue Rodeo (lead singer Jim Cuddy provides a great harmony vocal on the choruses of the Emmylou Harrislike "Don't Go Easy") and Jill's brother, singer/songwriter Matthew Barber, but the focus through this intimate, livesounding record is on Jill Barber, where it belongs. For All Time is a tremendously encouraging debut. - Stewart Mason, All Music Guide Read more Less