I’m yet to meet two people who can agree on what the term Americana actually means. If, as I suspect, it is meant to describe music which is quintessentially American, which upon hearing immediately imparts something about the place, the history and the culture it was conceived in then I guess Steve Baskin is about as Americana as it gets.
Mind Your Step is his fourth full album and it contains a lot of sounds and styles, blending country and R&B, soul and rock to build its sonic landscapes. Afraid Today is a tumbling slice of rock ’n’roll, the title track is a sassy piece of East Coast R&B that Southside Johnny would be jealous of, Dances By Moonlight is a lovelorn and lilting ballad and Dinner with Lou is tongue in cheek narrative and a chance to musically blow a few cobwebs away.
Steve Baskin is a smart cookie. He knows how to take a whole bunch of musical genres, ones that already share a certain amount of musical DNA, and finds the perfect way to dovetail them together so that they compliment rather than clash, and the result is a great rock ’n’ soul record.
