Album: from Dusk 'Til Dawn / Artist: Sass Jordan /  Rock / 10 tracks

 

The album from Dusk ‘til Dawn is the latest salvo from former Billboard Female Rock Artist of the Year Sass Jordan and it opens with her signature hard, edgy vocals on “What I Need,” which make it easy to understand why she once portrayed Janis Joplin in the off Broadway production of Love Janis.  The song is introduced with percussion, eventually accompanied by an electric guitar with simple up-tempo chords, leaving the listener completely disarmed, for when Jordan’s explosive vocals arrive on the scene proclaiming, “It’s time for me to shout out what I need / What I need from you.” At her Canadian album release concert in the fall, Jordan's performance of the song sent an immediate buzz through the packed out venue.

 

Sass Jordan teamed with her husband Derek Sharp to pen nine of the ten tracks on from Dusk ‘til Dawn, and Sharp also appears as the producer, co-arranged the tunes with Jordan, and he also plays guitar, as well as providing background vocals. The songwriting tandem conjures up strong word images with “Awake,” as we meet a lonely woman who goes out at three in the morning, because she is finding it difficult to sleep, while she contemplates a relationship that is coming to an end. This is not a song about he did me wrong or I hate him for what he did to me, but instead she asks, “Why did it come to this? / Is it so hard saying what you really mean? / If it’s real, I keep telling you, there’s no reason to pretend.” The strong visual images and the sense of frustration are evident in Jordan’s phrasing, but so is the sense of new beginnings and that is what makes this song so special.  This is not a bitter pill to swallow, but it is raw, vulnerable and more importantly it is just plain honest.

 

Some songs that Sass Jordan writes, “Awake,” being one of them come from that mysterious, mystical place that only truly creative people have, but are often at a loss for words to describe. In an interview with Riveting Riffs Magazine, late in 2009, Jordan said, “It just flows out. It is like the song is already written and then it just chooses you to come through. I find if I want to say something myself, I seem to interfere in the process and it doesn’t get said as well. These songs just flow through me and I can’t even take credit for writing them, but I did. It just flows out.”

 

“Why Did You,” has the feel of an early Eagles’ tune and unlike “Awake,” this song asks hard questions about whether or not the singer was emotionally abused, fooled or if she simply made a bad choice in the relationship that has now come to an end. Whereas “Awake,” is just honest and reflective, “Why Did You,” has a bitter twist, but she spends as much time being critical allowing herself to be put in the position to be used, as she is of her former lover.

 

The centerpiece of this album is a jewel called “Fell In Love Again,” a mid-tempo song that allows the listener to appreciate that Sass Jordan has far more to offer than just wailing, razor-like rock vocals, for on this tune she demonstrates a soulful side and when combined with a superb four piece horn section, one can only smile and say, “Oh yeah, future hit.”  “Fell In Love Again,” has a bit of that old skool Huey Lewis and the News feel to it, the kind of song that invites you to sing along to it, and has you leading your special someone to the dance floor.

 

Covering Tom Waits’ “Ol ’55,” was special for Jordan, “I did “OL ’55,” because it is a song that I have been singing since the seventies when I was singing the park with my friends. The fact that I sang it for all of those years in Montreal (she now lives in Toronto) and never realizing that one day I would be driving down the freeway in LA listening to it at six in the morning, while driving home. I never realized that I would be living in LA (someday). Me, doing a version of it on this record is the closing of that circle.”

 

If you consider yourself to have good taste in music and you are not prepared to settle for the usual run of the mill cookie cutter crap that is coming out of the major radio stations these days, then you should be opening your PayPal account or plunking down your credit card to download Sass Jordan’s from Dusk ‘til Dawn. In addition, to Jordan’s outstanding performance, the album features the splendid horns of; tenor saxophonist John Johnson, baritone sax man Pol Cousee, trumpeter Steve McDade and trombonist Gord Myers. Two very good guitarists Michael Borkosky and Chris Cadell appear with bassist Peter Cardinali, drummer Jorn Andersen and keyboardist Gary Breit.

 

 

Reviewed January 2010

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