Jimmy LaFave - Cimarron Manifesto (2007) CDRip

A Texas singer/songwriter once said of Jimmy LaFave early in his career: "He's got a ton of talent and a vision, now all he needs is a personality." This was as complimentary and positive a criticism as can be made of an artist early on, when they are still honing their vision, figuring out what works, live and in the studio, and what doesn't. LaFave has been on as restless a journey as a songwriter can embark upon. He's a person who doesn't like to be produced; he likes the raw bar band stuff and demands he be true to himself both on record and on the road. He's a romantic, a true one, with wanderlust. He's not a philosopher, he's a man who is rooted deeply in the Oklahoma red dirt and its unique history, especially the dust bowl and the soil and the wide open spaces of Texas, and by what he's been, not just where, and no one would argue that the songs weren't there from the beginning: "Buffalo Return to the Plains," the title track from his 1995 album, is an excellent example. But no one can argue that on his last three recordings, 2001's Texoma, 2005's Blue Nightfall, and here, on Cimarron Manifesto, he's onto something, though just what that is is mercurial, and perhaps could use the guidance of a very sensitive and firm producer to bring it out in a different way, but it's in the songs to be sure and there is an established personality in there, a stamp that is indelible. It's tattooed on the inside, on the heart where it belongs.