The Record, Canada
by Robert Reid
With the release of Down in the Dust, her sixth album since 2004, Lynn Jackson has quietly, but insistently, become one of the most prolific roots artists in area.
Her latest offering finds her returning to the alt-county folk that had been her mainstay before venturing into pop with the release of Coming Down in 2010.
Co-produced by Jackson and Cory Barnes, Down in the Dust is the singer-songwriter’s strongest vocal performance to date, whether against a backdrop of pedal steel guitar, organ or cello. The album is richly textured, providing a lush sonic landscape in which to place Jackson’s story songs of love and loss.
Eleven of the album’s 12 tracks are finely crafted, original compositions, augmented by an inspired cover of Josh Ritter’s Lawrence, KS. Highlights are impossible to pick, but the closing, title track, featuring Chris Boyne on harmony vocals, sends pricklies up the back of your neck.
With Down in the Dust, Jackson rides her rising artistic trajectory.