Kreg Viesselman
Album: If You Lose Your Light
Label: Continental Song City
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.kregviesselman.com

Kreg’s last album, The Pull, appeared in 2008, and was greeted with serious critical acclaim; a collection of spiritual and melodic songs that resonated with truth and purpose. Kreg then decided to retreat from touring and recording for four years, during that time relocating permanently in Europe. He finally resurfaced at Oslo’s legendary Jazz Club for his first publicised gig in Norway, flanked by the Norwegian musicians who’d performed on the record he’d been quietly recording in the studio over the previous months.

Comprising bassist Sondre Meisfjord, drummer Øystein Hvamen Rasmussen and vocalist Anne Lise Frøkedal, with appearances from pianist Bjarne Gustavsen, this team seems to have provided just the degree of warmth and support Kreg needed to surround his special brand of gentle, sometimes almost minimalist expressiveness, incidentally also accentuating the soulfulness of his writing. There are moments (like The Great Deceiver) when I hear the soul-inflected tones of John Martyn, while at others (the more intense passages in songs like Morning Come And Help Me for instance) there’s echoes of Van Morrison even. But generally speaking Kreg proves his own man, his voice and writing both tempered by their combination of brightness and melancholy.

The overall memorability quotient of this new album’s songs is high, yet the almost casual feel with which lyrics are delivered also proves unusually captivating, especially when Kreg’s own delicate acoustic guitar work comes into play as a foil to the vocal line, as on Tin Cups. This is a winning set, which is likely to reveal its depths more readily than Kreg’s at times rather more understated earlier work.

David Kidman