Garrett Lebeau
Album: Rise To The Grind
Label: Music Road
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.garrettlebeau.com

Garrett was born and raised on the Wind River Indian Reservation near Lander, WY, and is an enrolled member of the Shoshone Tribe; for music industry purposes, however, he's based in Austin, TX, and takes an honourable place on Jimmy LaFave's record label (already home to artists of the calibre of Slaid Cleaves, Kevin Welch and Sam Baker).

Garrett's stock-in-trade is a soulful and seamless blend of R&B, blues and classic soul, as can be heard straight away on the disc's supremely laid-back opener Crazy World which introduce us to, and showcases, Garrett's confidential vocal delivery. The entire record employs sublime backdrops for Garrett and his guitar, configured by a crack team of supporting musicians comprising Roscoe Beck (bass), J.J. Johnson (drums), Red Young (B3 organ) and Stefano Intelisano (other keyboards) with a neat harmonica cameo by Guy Forsyth on one track.

Hard to credit this is Garrett's debut release, so assured is his style and the production. Van Morrison, J.J. Cale, and maybe especially Al Green, are the closest reference points, but there's other elements in the mix too, all stirred into an impeccably managed whole-time groove. Subject matter for the 11 self-penned songs is mostly intense and ruminative, with standouts like Brothers and Darkness exploring the deeper issues both society-based and personal, that he's faced in his life and the brighter Blue Eyed Girls forming a loving, affectionate tribute to Garrett's daughter and wife.

The whole session is characterised by tasty, cautiously funky backbeats, simmering and controlled grooves, and a deep sensitivity in the writing and playing alike. All that Garrett needs, perhaps, is more in the way of contrast (it's mostly taken at a laid-back leisurely slow-to-mid-tempo) and purer melodic content, but this deficiency isn't likely to get seriously in the way of appreciation of this honest and most listenable record when you're in just the right chill-out mood.

David Kidman