Jesse Harris - Borne Away (2013)

Borne Away, the new 14-song "solo acoustic" album from Jesse Harris, was never meant to be an album at all. Why solo-acoustic in quotations? Because added to the basic live tracks of Harris with his guitar are light overdubs he plays almost entirely himself. To document everything he had, in a two-day session this past September, he recorded his new tunes on the same 1969 Martin nylon string on which he composed them. Every couple of weeks, returning to the studio, usually with another one or two new ones, he would add touches of Hammond organ, Casio keyboard, harmony vocals, kalimba, glockenspiel, and percussion. The only other musician to participate was friend Charlotte Kemp Muhl (Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger, Kemp and Eden), whose haunting vocal arrangement on the title track and harmonies on the album s final song, The Silent Sea, recall the music of classic horror films, 60s folk, and exotica. Borne Away is the most personal and intimate offering from Jesse Harris yet, as well as the strongest showcase of his singing, which has never sounded so relaxed and expressive. While it may be the most stripped down of his albums (this is his 12th), it is somehow the most well orchestrated and fully realized, the work of an artist who continues to grow and evolve.