Jennifer O’Connor
Over the Mountain, Across the Valley and Back to the Stars
Matador Records

After releasing two full-length records on a variety of miniscule independent labels, Jennifer O’Connor is finally getting her due. Having signed to Matador Records early this year, she was able to afford to put together the record we all knew she had in her. Her plaintive, country-tinged songs have always carried with them a stark immediacy that the small-time recording budget helped amplify, but even with a few extra dollars in the coffers, O’Connor’s songs are as affecting as ever.

It doesn’t hurt that she has made a lot of talented friends during her years of touring and living in New York, so she has cobbled together an insanely talented group of people to back her up on this new album (James McNew, Britt Daniel, and Kendall Meade are the most recognizable names here). Their crack playing complements O’Connor’s understated guitar work fabulously and are the perfect bed upon which to lay her distinctive and dreamy singing voice.

For all the extra help, the most startling moments are those where O’Connor is left to herself, as on the one-take beauty “Today”. With just voice and acoustic guitar, O’Connor allows the emotion of the straightforward lyrics gently wrap around the eardrums of anyone who cares to listen. It’s a simple love song that in her hands is a purring afternoon nap on a sun-drenched couch. When she sings “Put your hand in mine/just like you do all the time”, you might just find yourself physically reaching out for her. 

Soon enough, O’Connor is going to leave the indie music world behind for bigger and better things. Her simple and poignant songwriting is so evocative of artists like Lucinda Williams and Mary Chapin-Carpenter that is seems almost a crime that she isn’t heard in the same venues as they are. Still, I think I would much rather have her all to myself as long as I can before I start seeing her CDs for sale at Starbucks.

MP3s
Today
Exeter, Rhode Island

Websites
http://www.jenniferoconnor.net
http://www.myspace.com/jenniferoconnor
http://www.matadorrecords.com