Here's To Being Here

Here's To Being Here is the best kind of homage, a folk-gospel-blues mash-up that sounds like it could be The Velvet Underground's critically adored long-lost country record, if such a thing existed.

There’s good understated playing throughout, strong songwriting and a casual, immediate feel that comes from recording an entire album in six days.

Even though the album's production aims for and achieves a vintage AM radio sound, Collett's willingness to subvert the conventions of songwriters like Dylan or Kristofferson makes Here a definitively modern record and perhaps the first of Collett's solo albums to sound like a real classic.

Collett's persona never feels like an act or a put-on, he's the real deal. [Winter 2008, p.81]

Thoroughly mature, endlessly melodic, and superbly crafted, Here’s to Being Here is a joyful noise.

He'll always sport that BSS tattoo, but with this effort, Jason Collett's no longer searching for a defining sound.

Although not an album of the year candidate or (unfortunately) likely an even noteworthy nod, Collett nonetheless delivers a fine collection of songs.

This mannered, understated virtuosity permeates Collett's music, just like it did the Band's.

High-pitched coos gatecrash the song's chorus like they've just been kicked out of the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil," and a harmonized keyboard solo injects a bit of the Steve Miller Band into an otherwise minimalist, Southern-styled slow jam. Such unexpected moves seem to be a new thing for Collett, and they combine to make this his strongest solo effort yet.

Collett achieves both scope and cohesion on these tenderly twanging tunes, making his way assuredly through slow-burning swoons ("Henry's Song"), nimble boogies ("Charlyn, Angel of Kensington"), and back-porch laments ("No Redemption Song").