In a live setting Jennifer Castle’s songs take on a kind of heft to them - a rock and roll kind of heft that causes them to soar like an eagle, as opposed to the dove-like versions that appear on record. Angels Of Death [Paradise of Bachelors / Idée Fixe Records], which for my money might be the best album of 2018, hits you where it hurts. The lyrics are obviously deeply personal, however, they have an existential universality that doesn’t take away from the strength of the songs but increases it.

“It’s a shame that I thought this river knew my name / It’s a shame that I thought I could move a mountain / And it’s a shame that I thought love was a game worth playing / And it’s a shame that I thought I could win / And it’s a shame that I’m starting again,” she sings on Crying Shame. Who hasn’t felt this way, or thought these thoughts at some point in their lives? But pair these incredible lyrics with a voice that rises up to a level that brings to mind Emmylou Harris or Dolly Parton and you know that this album is a classic - one that you will spin until the grooves wear out.

Live, the songs kick ass. Her band comes complete with two backup singers and incredible musicianship that transforms older songs like “We Always Change” (see her 2008 release You Can’t Take Anyone - filed under Castlemusic) into “country-soul” rockers.

It’s almost unfair that someone can write such great songs, and play guitar, and sing with a voice that sounds like this…but…it is what we are searching for every time we browse the bins.

Photos taken September 8, 2018 at Baby’s All Right, Brooklyn, NY.