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Jim Allen /Straight Time (Prime CD pcd65)

Owing to the attention we were paying to the Richard Shindells, the Lucy Kaplanskys and
Cliff Eberhardts of singer/songwriter-dom the past few years, we had not given a proper listening
to Jim Allen's debut CD gem,Weeper's Stomp. His bluesy, rich baritone plus his writing style
have made him a highly respected member of New York's elite corps of performing songwriters.
Our attention was brought to his brilliant, recently released album, Straight Time, by fellow musician/writer
Tom Walton. This "guest review" reads as follows:

Jim Allen slowly emerged from under the shadows of 747s coming in for landings at
LaGuardia Airport and rumbling just over his parents' Bronx home. In self-imposed solitary
confinement, he did his early time in a narrow room, in that battered New York City borough,
surrounded by the most extraordinary collection of LPs since Bear's from Canned Heat.
He had the blues. Who wouldn't? The late 1980s found him nightly riding the #6 train all the way
down to Greenwich Village to try out his own trademark variety on jaded Manhattan club denizens,
unaware that they were witnessing only the early career of 'The one & only.. Jim Allen.' In 1996,
some of these songs were finally lased into his first Prime CD disc, Weepers' Stomp (pcd0024).

Before this release, barehanded 'Jimbo' (as friends call him) pounded out his truer-than-life
'Bottom Rung' songs on the sweat-soaked strings of an upside-down guitar at a now defunct
MacDougal Street songwriters' hang. The first thing I thought when I heard him was, "this guy's
gonna be a household name in a few years." But it wasn't to be. He still had to do time, Straight Time.

Like the first, Allen's second and more upbeat release was exquisitely produced by his long time friend,
the inimitable singer-songwriter, Richard Julian (Richard Julian /Blackbird Recording Group).
It's apparent from this new collection of songs that Jim Allen has lately been hanging out in other
people's prisons. Picking up the desperate longings of Middle America and poignantly distilling them into
potent songs like 'Work' while touring the U.S. with veteran songwriter Eric Andersen, this Bronx boy
has matured into quite 'the man.' Incorporating accordion-driven Ohio factory-town beer-hall sounds
and gilded steel guitar guidance, Straight Time crosses its Ts and dots its Is with 'Conjunto' and 'Don't Bring Me Down.'
A later flip-side tribute to reclusive songwriter, Fred Neil reveals something about the history Jim Allen knows.
I met this walking music library when he was about 21 and I was approaching 40. He knew more about the music
and artists I'd listened to at his age than I did. Now two albums of well-aged jewels have already made their way
from this otherwise young cat's sacred center to record store shelves.

'To Keep You Warm' is the Leonard Cohen like diamond-in-the-rough of this collection. Two lovers press
tightly together while the world all around them falls apart. And it's a perfect example of how no one can
deep-throat a song like Mr. Jim Allen. You have to sing his irresistible tunes at least an octave higher.
But sing them you will. It only requires one listening for Allen's long-suffering, fermented melodies to take root.
With string bass and upright piano accompaniment, and his wife Barbara handling a cocktail drum kit, Jim often returns
from his road shows to play downtown NYC cool spot, The Living Room. This second record release will surely bring
the unsinkable, titanic Jim Allen to the surface after all. Soon, he'll likely have a school of music-business sharks swimming
around his hull. Other writers of someday classics like David Cantor from Dave's True Story (Sex Without Bodies /Chesky Records),
Frank Tedesso (Songs from Einstein's Violin /Imaginary Road) and Rebecca Martin, who includes him in some of her packed-house
Independence Project concerts, can often be seen at his gigs. When this guy's playing in town, don't miss him.
--Tom Walton
To order Straight Time or Weeper's Stomp, simply call 1-800-Prime-CD or order online at www.primecd.com

Jenny Reynolds is a seductress. From the first notes of the first cut, she reels you in.
The husky, slightly breathy alto demands attention. In tone and pronunciation, she bears
a strong resemblance to Natalie Merchant. However, the muses she thanks on this CD
are wide-ranging in nature and include Calvin & Hobbes creator, Bill Watterston, Sting,
James Taylor, William Shakespeare, and Emily Dickinson.
The production is first-rate, and with help from back-up singers like Catie Curtis, Barbara Kessler and Linda Sharar,
this album is a resounding success.

In spite of the expressions of loss in many of her relationship-based songs,she's an incurable romantic.
In "Whisper," the regret and disappointment are evident as she sings:

"If there's something I want to tell you / Should I say it outright? 
But if there's someone who's there with you / Then I think I just might 
Tell it to the wind / To tell the stars who'll tell the rain / and the rain won't want to tell you 
And the rain won't want you to know / There's a light up in the window / Of the corner of my mind 
And it holds the hope that lingers / for promises sublime…
Too much too little too short / too much too little and too many mistakes…"

Sometimes the emotional tone seems to come from a bygone era. 
One song, "Prisoner," has "with apologies to E.D" in parentheses after the title. 
In the chorus she sings:

"Do you know love my friend? / Well, does she hold you prisoner? / 
 Do you know fom start to end / well, she'll take all you give her.

For me, the song that most evokes the era belonging to Emily Dickinson, is "Devotion Street:"

"Miss Olivia regrets your invitation / she's simply too much to do
Between the dogs and the weather and Tolstoy to master
She's simply no time for  forever and after
Love comes like a vapor and leaves her like the flu."

We got a chance to meet Jenny when she played the Living Room on April 5th and found 
a woman who's both strong-minded and strong-willed. She  can tell a lover in "Talk to me:"

"You don't have to speak / No, you can be silent / No need for this game of hide and seek, 
This way I believe / you may not speak a word / but your eyes still speak to me.  
Roses they are still roses even if you change their name. 
You can dress up their names if you like, I'll still feel the same."

Her voice carries that conviction throughout every song. Both the songs and the voice 
will get under your skin and you'll hear them long after the CD player is shut off.
--Richard Cuccaro

The CD is for sale online at www.folkweb.com
You can e-mail Jenny for her performance schedule
and other info at jennyreynolds@folkzone.com