Anyone who is familiar with Barb Jungr's records knows that her singing is informed by and imbued with blues and gospel influences. It might be said that even when she's not singing the blues in a formal sense, you can still tell that she has been listening to them. On her new CD, Walking In The Sun, she has turned more directly back to these inspirations so here she sings songs written or made famous by Bo Diddley, Jimmy Reed and Brownie McGhee. Eric Bibb contributes a song and plays guitar.
As we have come to expect, there are Dylan songs here too. Listen to her voice dance across the uneven surface of Trouble In Mind, and recall as she testifies in the choruses that she has appeared on stage with the Fairfield Four. In the majestic Blind Willie McTell the accompaniment falls silent at the end of the second verse and that voice, now naked and compelling, lays Dylan's vision of the American South before us - the plantations, the whips, the magnolia, and the slavery ships - a demonstration that emphasis and power need not rely on shouting and volume to come across.
There is so much on this CD that is wonderful that it seems invidious to pick out one song as a favourite. Jungr can do sexy (her own Drink Me Up) and sneering (Randy Newman's God's Song). She can do playful (Take Out Some Insurance) and complex. Both the title song and Eric Bibb's Heading Home are songs about triumph over bad times which have such threads of melancholy woven into them that you are torn between rejoicing over present happiness or redemption, and being brought close to tears by what has gone before. There are layers of meaning and subtleties here that aren't going to be exhausted by listening to these songs over and over again. Songs fit to break your heart.
Two of the splendid musicians featured on Walking In The Sun - Jenny Carr on piano and Jessica Lauren on keyboards and harmonica - can also be heard playing these songs live with Barb. If they're playing in your town, go and see them. Hey, if they're playing two counties away, go and see them. You won't regret it.
Neither live, nor on this record, does Barb Jungr wallow in emotion: she transcends it. If you want to hear a woman who sings as if she understands what these songs are about, who can show you the meaning and living heart of the song and make a gift of it to you, if above all you want to hear a singer, then you must listen to Walking In The Sun. Hats off (once again) to Barb Jungr.