Till the Light Comes

This record was produced by Jackie Greene and Tim Bluhm. Jackie Greene has been hailed as the new boy wonder of the Americana/roots rock scene since he released his first album in 2002, but he's clearly aiming for a bigger stage nearly a decade into his recording career. On�Till the Light Comes,�Greene�sounds a great deal more comfortable with the pop side of his musical formula than he has in the past - which is not to suggest that�Greene's made some deal with the music biz devil on this set;�Till the Light Comes�still sounds heartfelt and organic and the songs remain literate and well-crafted, but�Greene�and producer�Tim Bluhm�allow the hooks in the melodies to step to the forefront, with a lighter touch and a breezier approach that suits these tunes quite well. "Spooky Tina, which concerns a alluringly problematic woman, reveals�Greene�can write the proverbial good beat you can dance to, and the Vox organ hook and the playful backing vocals allow it to resemble some sort of a hit single, while "Medicine" is just a few shakes shy of sounding genuinely funky and the title song's mixture of a sharp melody and some strong guitar figures recalls�Dire Straits from the period when�Mark Knopfler�was writing hit single material.�Greene�hasn't audibly dumbed down his songwriting on�Till the Light Comes, and "1961" and "The Holy Land" confirm he still has a genuine gift for telling an emotionally compelling story that has something to say. But while the frequent comparisons to�Dylan�sometimes made�Jackie Greene�sound like the musical equivalent of shredded wheat - good for you, but not much fun -�Till the Light Comes�is a lot more like Cinnamon Life, tasty but with some substance, too.