Album review: SESSION AMERICANA with Jefferson Hamer – Great Shakes

August 20th, 2016 by GRTR! HQ

SESSION AMERICANA with Jefferson Hamer - Great Shakes

[Release date 14.10.16]

Session Americana are a Boston area collective formed in 2003 with six previous releases and a significant number of local area nominations and awards. And while guitarist/ singer Jefferson Hamer has been an integral part of the six piece line up that’s been playing together over the last 6 years, he’s been given credit prominence on Great Shakes for bringing songs, recording gear, arrangements and driving the whole album forwards, including co-producing and engineering.

Starting out as an experimental project, where instruments (and the mic) were passed around the players as the songs demanded, Session Americana have settled into a late 60′s /early 70′s vibe with echoes of James Taylor, The Eagles, CSN&Y (and Neil Young in particular), Simon and Garfunkel, and just the odd hint of the Fab Four.

So what you get is some ‘classic’ acoustic based ‘soft rock’, some particularly fine harmonica playing (courtesy of Jim Fitting), and exemplary harmony vocals. While never quite reaching song writing the heights of ‘the greats’, there’s plenty, performance wise, to admire here. Both timeless and time bound in equal measures. ***

Review by Pete Whalley

Session Americana will be touring in Belgium/Netherlands in October 2016 and the UK in Jan/Feb 2017. (http://www.sessionamericana.com/shows/)

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