David Jacobs-Strain emerged from the rain soaked mountains of Western Oregon to storm the festival circuit as a dynamic blues prodigy. Like a diesel powerhouse, he speeds across the landscape of the Country Blues to the earthbound grooves of the Mississippi Delta, with his driving slide guitar and fervent vocals. David’s passion for stretching the limits of the blues verges on psychedelic and highlights his intimate knowledge of the fretboard. Last summer David was invited to tour with the legendary Boz Skaggs in a series of large venues across America.

Still in his mid-twenties, Jacobs-Strain has managed to create his own place in the acoustic music world. With the release of Ocean or a Teardrop he builds on his big acoustic guitar sound with producer Kenny Passarelli and creates the energy of a great live jam session with an enticing blend of roots classics, inspiring instrumental pieces, and tantalizing original songs. This album showcases David’s expansive songwriting skills as well as the politically conscious evolution of his music. Slide guitar and harmonica rise up from the swamp of the blues to meet the West African Kora and the Turkish Oud, highlighting guest collaborators, Joe Craven and Peter Joseph Burtt.

David Jacobs-Strain photo by Michael Strain

On her new album, Songs for Bright Street, New York-based singer/songwriter Amy Speace demonstrates why she’s quickly become one of her adopted hometown’s most celebrated emerging artists. Possessing a commanding voice, a distinctive melodic sensibility and an uncanny knack for nailing complex emotions in song, Speace makes music that’s both illuminating and effortlessly accessible. Amy has already won a loyal grass-roots fan base, thanks in large part to live performances that merge warmth, humor and emotional immediacy, and to a tireless touring schedule that’s already taken her across the United States. She’s also won considerable critical acclaim, with the Village Voice observing that Speace is “taking her Americana away from twangy contemplation toward tangy confrontation” and noting that she’s “not another of those breathy would-be child poets, but a real singing writer of songs.”

While attending Amherst College, Amy acted in student stage productions while pursuing a passion for opera that led her to study classical voice in New York City. Bitten hard by the music bug, she soon began performing as half of the female acoustic duo Edith O. When the other half of the duo quit to raise a family, Amy went solo for a while. By the time Speace began the two-year creative birth cycle that yielded Songs for Bright Street, she’d evolved from her original acoustic sound to focus on a band-oriented electric approach. She’d also moved across the river to New Jersey and began working with producer/guitarist James Mastro, whom she’d met when she began frequenting his Hoboken instrumental emporium the Guitar Bar. She first tapped Mastro to produce one track on Fable and to play lead guitar in the Tearjerks, which also includes guitarist Rich Feridun, bassist Matt Lindsey and drummer Jagoda. “It’s a really cohesive band, not just the typical singer-songwriter backup band of session dudes,” Speace notes.

Amy Speace photo by John Mazlish

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With his fifth album, David Jacobs-Strain shows that all the approbation that’s come his way of late is well earned. There has been a slew of young guitarists in recent years littering the blues-rock landscape, but Jacobs-Strain is the real deal. For one thing, he doesn’t just rock out: he’s learned the art of crossing musical boundaries from the masters. His music has a fiery passion that’s exciting and engaging, tempered with an aesthetic reminiscent of the Pacific Northwest, where he grew up and cut his first guitar strings. Don’t be fooled by his youth; Jacobs-Strain knows what he’s doing. G.W., Dirty Linen, April/May 2005

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If you’re a fan of Lucinda Williams / Caitlin Cary / Roseanne Cash then give [Amy Speace] a whirl and wonder why you haven’t heard of her before… [Songs for Bright Street]’s got the lot — lots of sad country twang, a dollop of folk and just a smidge of pop. . . In short, it’s full of melodic treats that will make your heart ache. Lonesome Music