Trocadero Records (Bochum, Germany).

Redemption is the title of American songwriter Tom Jessen's debut album, and this is what it means. The songs on this album have relieved him of several loads. If it's true — that songs can save your life — Tom Jessen has saved his own. Maybe his melancholic and seeking songs will reach some brothers in mind like Kerouac did with "On The Road," or Dylan or early Springsteen, to use some impudent measurements for the moment. Still there are as many songwriters as sand on a beach, but you'll very rarely encounter one of them who really touches you, who grabs you all of a sudden. Jessen is one of this kind — he can capture you (if you let him) with his shy intimacy, but also with his desperate struggle to get ahead. He is not to offer you hip new gimmicks, not to re-invent songwriting. But he is no pretender, and that is worth mentioning. In some strange way he would have fit into [the movie] "Magnolia" with his songs full of little tragedies and dreams. Times of cynicism and irony seem to be ebbing away . . .

"My songs are pure therapy to me. I can make something creative out of my negative moods this way. I need a motive that bothers me. I cannot simply sit down and invent a song." He didn't have to. Tom Jessen had a lot to work up over the years — unemployment, search for a home, failing love affairs, in short: the meaning of life. Nothing special actually, just real life between cliche and reality. What he made (up) out of it is remarkable, though. Without beating about the bush he wrote numerous autobiographic songs that make their point as straight as (sometimes) novelists manage to. Omitting any spiritualized metaphors, he unveils his soul to the very depths.

Redemption not only results to be an impressive piece of work in terms of lyrics, it also features some remarkable musical efforts. The album's instrumentation alone breaks new ground. Next to a standard rock line-up you'll find trombones, banjo, accordion, pedal steel guitar, cello, violins, vibraphone, tuba and a lot more to discover. Like a collage of short sketches and well-shaped songs, Jessen (in his early thirties) enriches his midtempo songs with occasional trips into funeral marches, swing, jazz or bluegrass. . . .

Musical associations swing merrily around and will most easily give way to a namedropping contest. Among the mentioned ones so far: young Springsteen, Tom Waits, The Schramms, Graham Parker, Lambchop, Son Volt, Crash Test Dummies . . .

As there is a lot of underdone pretentiousness going on in Alternative Country, somebody like Jessen should play along in the first line of the real-hearted.