Album Review: Take Your Time by Jessica Blake

Album Name: Take Your Time
Artist: Jessica Blake
Year/Label: 2004 / Puffafish Records

[Buy at Jessica Blake’s site]

Review by Amy Lotsberg Producer of Collected Sounds

I’ll be honest. I thought ‘ugh, country…this will be hard’ because County is not one of my favorite genres. In fact, it’s one I can scarcely tolerate. But then I saw that Jessica Blake is from England. Hmm, English-Country, interesting concept. As my other half said, “She’s English, it’s probably good country.” So I went in with an open mind, and guess what? It is pretty good!

The songs are all originals but they seem to have some influence from other older songs.

“Oh Susanna” is not the original “Oh Susanna” that we all know, but it’s similar.

“Thank you for the Ride” has some “oooh, oooh, ooohs” that remind me of the old song, “Lookin’ Out My Backdoor”. (Don’t ask me why I even know that song.)

Blake’s voice is deep and smooth, not what I would call your average country voice, but it still seems to fit the musical style very well.

There are times when the slide guitar comes in that I would rather it didn’t, but otherwise this is a great recording, even for those of us who don’t care for country. It’s almost more Americana (which seems silly coming from a Brit) but it works.

Posted on March 12, 2004

Track Listing
1. Oh Susannah
2. Thank You For The Ride
3. Granite Stone
4. Heart Driven Mind
5. If This is Wrong
6. Take Your Time
7. You Can Stay
8. Got to Believe
9. Welcome Hunters
10. Lonely Bird

[Jessica Blake Official Site]

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