Jo Harrop - The Path Of A Tear

(Lateralize Records, 2024)

Lateralize Records

Path Of A Tear is vocalist Jo Harrop’s follow up to 2022’s The Heart Wants (Lateralize) and her first featuring a majority of original compositions by Harrop and the disc’s producer, Larry Kline. Harrop chooses three interesting and unlikely covers for the project. Harrop and the disc's producer, Larry Kline, choose three interesting and unlikely covers for the project, including Leonard Cohen's relatively recent "Traveling Light" (from Cohen's final recording, You Want It Darker (Columbia, 2016)), which they cast as a crepuscular lament for love. The singer’s choice of Elton John and Leon Russell’s “If It Wasn’t For The Bad” (from The Union (Decca, 2010)) is downright inspired. Stripped down to a standard jazz quartet with guitar support, Harrop adds smoke to the performance, casting the song in a more playfully resigned than the original. Harrop uses Steve Earle’s “Goodbye” from his recording, Train A Comin’ (Warner Bros., 1995). These covers frame in introspectively conceived and delivered recording. Harrop’s subdued delivery supports her efforts well. Bassist Klien’s production tends toward a burnishing of Harrop’s gospel and blues tendencies to a smooth shine. This works well, but it would have been nice to hear these pieces with a little rough left in them.