CD Review: Craig Jackson — Damn The Roses

 Craig Jackson

Damn The Roses

Green Records

By Scott Roberts

Proverbially speaking, a book cannot be judged by its cover. The same cannot be said as often or as confidently about judging a CD by its cover. If you see a guy with a tight t-shirt and a cowboy hat on a cover, or four guys with perfectly coiffed hair wearing black leather, you can pretty much guess what the music on the inside is going to sound like. If, however, you were to deduce that Craig Jackson’s latest CD, Damn The Roses, would have the laid-back acoustic, hippie vibe of The Grateful Dead’s American Beauty based on the fact that the CD’s cover is nearly an exact replica of that album, you’d be “dead” wrong (and possibly “grateful” too, depending on how you feel about those ancient rockers) to find that instead the music within is a melodically-rich, smoothly produced group of songs reminiscent of a country-tinged Jackson Browne or perhaps a slightly cheerier Freedy Johnston.

“Keep it simple/Simple is good,” Jackson sings on the elegantly catchy “Simple,” and it seems to be the singer/songwriter’s modus operandi throughout the entire CD’s 10 songs. Every cut showcases Jackson’s smooth and tuneful voice along with capable, if not always inspired, instrumental support from the assembled group of Tennessee studio musicians, most notably pedal steel player Adam Ollendorf, who adds just the right amount of eeriness to the mournful “Every Time You Leave.”  And harmony singer Megan Whalen’s voice blends beautifully with Jackson’s on most of the songs on the country-rocker’s fifth studio outing, especially on the standout track “The Crying Game” where she gets to sing some lead vocals as well. 

Damn The Roses is a well-produced, nicely written and performed group of songs, but with a few rough edges and an occasional production enhancement from this century, the Nashville-based Craig Jackson could easily become a national force and create an Americana classic.