Kate Jacobs

You Call That Dark

2004-05-06

If Iris Dement worked with Yo La Tengo, you’d probably get music that’s sweetly voiced, ethereally recorded, sensibly country and slightly bitter. Or maybe you’d have a Kate Jacobs record.

Kate, along with career collaborator and former Yo La Tengo guitarist Dave Schramm, lovingly paints sympathetic character portraits of the down-trodden in America. In “What a World, What a God”, an old immigrant confuses the word “pain” with the word “cash” and refuses medical treatment thinking his doctors are trying to rob him blind (but aren’t they?). Dreams quietly die in “Pete's Gonna Sell” and “Helen Has a House”. “Tall Buildings” go up, yet the city goes downhill.

Kate makes a vain attempt to balance these maladies by instilling dreams and beauty in the life of her child in “Life Can Be Sweet”. Puzzle over the remaining lyrics as much as you'd like.

Sonically…it’s swirling country music augmented by Schramm’s numerous instrumental contributions.
We Call This Great.

Quick Links:

More reviews tagged #Folk

  • reviewed 01/2010

    VARIOUS ARTISTS
    Keep the Light Alive: Celebrating the Music of Lowen and Navarro

  • reviewed 04/2007

    ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL
    Reinventing the Wheel

  • reviewed 01/2007

    ERIN MCKEOWN
    Sing You Sinners, 2007

  • reviewed 08/2006

    Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited
    Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited

  • reviewed 02/2017

    Kris Kristofferson
    The Austin Session

  • reviewed 05/2007

    NEIL YOUNG
    Live at Massey Hall, 1971

Compiled by the WYCE Journalism Club

The opinions expressed in these reviews are those of the individual volunteers that submitted the article and do not necessarily reflect the views of WYCE or GRCMC; nor its staff, donors, or affiliates.