If you were to encounter Jen Elliot & Bluestruck at a festival you would be delighted and enjoy their music. There is something about the band that begs to be heard in the open air, so that the vocals of lead singer Jen Elliot can travel thoroughly through the environment. But when all this open air stuff is transposed to a portable CD format, it can really only go so far; and in my opinion, the music just doesn't go far enough. Oddly enough the dampening aspect of the Bluestruck sound is actually singer Jen Elliot.



Jen Elliot leads a six member band with instruments including electric guitars, mandolins, synths, bass, violins, and cellos through blues tinged alternative country rock. The band pays like hardened blues pros; the solos all come from the gut and lay out hard like putting down a railroad track against a beating Alabama sun (just how I imagine blues to be played). It's just that *sigh* nothing launches out of the music or penetrates deep in enough in your soul like most great blues does. It's only when Elliot allows the band to hold their own without her that they really soar.



The album opens with "Crazy" a song announcing everyone's craziness propped up against a blue burning tune of rigid rock and roll. The lyrics are solid enough, they don't really cut into you like a simple Muddy Waters song or even make you two-step like a Garth Brooks country tune, but they hold up. The song begins off sounding in the distance then builds steam like an oncoming train. The bottle neck sound of the guitar is classic blues stuff and the accented variations at the end of each verse are fiery. It's just, when Elliot starts singing it begins to dull things out. Her voice is well rounded and she pronounces things well, but maybe even a little too well. She doesn't take the routes which are laid out for her by her band; she stands in-front of the music and never meshes in. It doesn't sound natural, she isn't forcing each note out of her and things sound too smooth.



The next song "Full" is much slower and more ballad-like song and Elliot's voice benefits the music much better. The track is bordering on soulful, and when the bridge cuts in after the chorus the solo is thoughtful and a little menacing (in that good bluesy way), although, once again, Elliot's singing waters down the effect. Her voice sometimes makes me think she might be better suited in an operetta or singing country music. "Blue Fog" opens as an intriguing instrumental and Elliot begins singing just a little underneath the band but then escalates her voice to overpower every element of the music. She sings "Blue fog, Blue Fog/ Let me through" and maybe that is the point of her tunes, that she can't make it through these bluesy compositions and really blossom inside the music.



"Garden of Delight" is the most enjoyable song. Elliot stands above the music once again but it is surprisingly successful and with back up singer Yoco singing along it makes it a soothing and delightful mix. Eventually the music lifts up above Elliot and nearly crushes her, allowing the effect of the riffs and rhythms to do their work. Still though, even when a bridge flows out a piercing solo I can only imagine Elliot, with the microphone cord wrapped around one hand, tapping the rhythm all to carefully with her toe. It just never let's loose.



When I hear blues music, I expect the bluesy feeling to overcome me; that anguish and sorrow to wash away by the sound of guitars and vocals which seep under your skin and stab your heart. Jen Elliot and Bluestruck only go half way. They have the sound and they have the talent but they don't have the feeling. It's all too calculated and too precise. The best way to sum it up is to listen to Elliot's "Hell yea, Hell yea" at the end of "Crazy" as though it is a cue from the singer to play harder and not the real genuine feeling she is transferring from the music.



Track Listing

1 Crazy

2 Full

3 Bringing Me Down

4 Blue Fog

5 Garden of Delight

6 Try to Forget