Jeffrey Gaines: Jeffrey Gaines

His debut album is eloquent about the honest, hard-working people trying make sense of a world that gets progressively more dangerous and uncaring by the day. The subjects of the songs seem like the agenda of a contemporary support group: abrogation of fatherly responsibility ("Didn't Wanna Be Daddy"), the need for self-love ("A Dark Love Song"), fear of failure ("Hero in Me"), and paralyzing neurotic insecurity ("Scares Me More"). Gaines has a rich, expressive voice, husky and forceful: there's a hint of Elvis Costellos's throaty distemper, though Gaines is more generally restrained. But the spartan musical settings aim at hushed subtleties and sometimes seem to vaporize instead. Still, there are exceptions, notably "Hero in Me" and "Scares Me More," where he come sup with arrangements that flow with the clarity and focus of his words. Despite some dirgelike numbers, which tend to make Gaines sound like a male Tracy Chapman, this debut holds a lot of promise.
-- Parke Puterbaugh, Stereo Review, November, 1992

Garth Hudson guests on sax, organ, and accordion.

Tracks

1. Hero in Me
2. Scares Me More
3. Didn't Wanna Be Daddy
4. Love Disappears
5. Fear
6. Dark Love Song
7. Why
8. No, I Don't Think So
9. Choices
10. What It Is
11. Sorry the Very Next Day
12. Headmasters of Mine

Sidemen

• Garth Hudson, accordion/keyboards/saxophone

Jeffrey Gaines - Jeffrey Gaines - 48:52 - 1992 - CEMA/Chrysalis 21840

AMG Rating: 8 (out of 9)