Jesse Winchester - Live from Mountain Stage (2001)

This modest live album offers a rare glimpse of a truly great Southern singer-songwriter, but it may frustrate fans as much as it intrigues listeners unfamiliar with his work. At his best, Jesse Winchester weaves gospel, folk, blues, and country threads into graceful, intelligent music that reflects his origins in Louisiana, rural Mississippi, and Memphis. He sings in a honeyed drawl about affairs of the heart, small moments of deep feeling, and mysteries of the spirit with a rare balance of clarity and gravity. This set captures Winchester accompanied only by his spare gut-string acoustic guitar, a setting that emphasizes song craft but eclipses his skill at solid ensemble arrangements. The repertoire favors Winchester's more recent output while overlooking or underselling his earlier songs, thus reducing exquisite signatures like "Brand-New Tennessee Waltz" and "Yankee Lady" to pale echoes of their original power and depicting their author as a folk poet instead of the versatile musician his past albums and infrequent tours have revealed. -- Sam Sutherland