Illinoisan folk-country/blues troubadour
Jason Eklund hunkered down in Austin, TX, to put together
Lost Causeway, and he gathered a crop of formidable friends to help out.
Steve James plays guitar here, joined by
Bad Liver Mark Rubin on bass and
Lounge Lizard Tom Pittman on banjo. Also making appearances are
Jimmy LaFave and
Guy Forsyth, among others. This effort is more fully fleshed-out than
Eklund's debut and represents a bit more diversity from a young folky who initially fashioned himself out of the typical, young idealist/revolutionary cloth of the
Woody Guthrie myth. "On the Way" is a sturdy slab of country-folk, while "Rusty Water" settles down into ruminative balladry. "Travelin' on That Lost Causeway," however, finds
Eklund's usually appealing, rustic voice narrowed to a caustic sneer (so caught up is he in his heavy-handed, wide-sweeping critique of the American socio-geographical landscape). Overall, however, this is a strong collection with only a few missteps, in particular the dissonant, reductive "History Spills." ~ Erik Hage