It Was You – Jason Sinay (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

You can tell a lot about an artist by the company they keep. So anyone to be found recording and performing with the likes of Keith Richards and Neil Young, Jeff Lynne, and Lucinda Williams, not to mention being a full paid-up member of The Dirty Knobs, the band led by ex-Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell, is someone that you should take notice of.

But, the proof is in the pudding, as they say, and Jason Sinay’s latest single, It Was You, demonstrates exactly why he moves in such rarefied circles. It’s a great song, sure, but it is also much more than that.

I don’t know what the term Americana means, but if it is about music that evokes a sense of place, music that could only come from the place suggested by such a title or term, then this is undoubtedly it. Rock guitars meld with rootsy acoustica, solid rhythms blend with drifting sonics, the pace is punchy, but the groove is poised, and this feels like the soundtrack to a world of big skies and open roads, but so too of heartbreak and betrayal, lyrically, in the grand scheme of things, a small, intimate, personal story, musically a sound that could only come from the place where country, blues, and alt-rock meet, meld and merge.

It Was You is many things: poignant and personal, relatable and universal, it grooves, it rocks, but does so deftly and delicately—but more than anything, it is a gorgeous slice of music, and that is enough for any discerning music fan, don’t you think?