Jackson Finch

Item: Experience
Author: Robert Berman

Experience

(1996)

Reviewed by Robert Berman

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Label Warner AllianceThe LighthouseJune 1996

acoustic ccm folk rock

I've been waiting for this album literally for years. I first heard of Jackson Finch almost three years ago through their independent album, Beyond Complacency, a low-budgeted but impressive mix of electronic drums and acoustic guitars that came across as a catchy mixture of Jars of Clay and Indigo Girls. When I learned they were moving to Nashville to pursue music full-time after college, I waited for the fruits of that decision to ripen. And I waited. And I waited. And finally, Experience arrived. On this major label debut, Jackson Finch realize some of my hopes for their career in Music City. But also some of my fears.

This album bears definite kinship to early Wes King material, with its emphasis on acoustic groove amplified by a full band. Upbeat songs like the album opener, "Mile Of Me," are almost impossible to listen to without breaking out your old guitar from behind the vacuum cleaner at the back of the closet and trying to play along with Kevin Jackson (who, along with pianist Brian Finch, supplies vocals, songs, and his last name to the band). And the slower songs like "This Love" and "Fascinated" have their own quiet allure, with overlapping vocal lines and tight harmonies. "Waiting," the only song to reappear from the previous album, has been reworked into a marvelous and seductively slow anthem to God's faithfulness. These are songs that would be killer live, even without a band.

In fact, the band is much of the problem on this release. It's undeniable that the general musicianship of the album is up four or five notches from Beyond Complacency; it can't help but be better, with studio standards like Jackie Street, Carl Marsh, and even Phil Keaggy lending their considerable skills. But the album has been guided into mediocrity by joint producers JB and Mark Chesshir, and the problem is compounded by having the same studio people who play on everyone else's albums. The first single, "To Believe," is emblematic of the problem: it sounds just like the songs on Christian radio which were playing immediately before and immediately after it. And Phil Keaggy does a great job with the acoustic guitar work on "Jesus Is There," but if I was a new acoustic guitar-playing artist, having Phil Keaggy do my solos would sound an awful lot like my record label giving a vote of "no-confidence" to my own skills. The same happens with Brian Finch, who shares keyboard credits with three others on the album.

Lyrically, the album is impressively thematic. It shares its theme of "learning from life's lessons" with Michael Card's Poiema. "Life is not a complication," declares the opening song, and the subject resurfaces throughout the album. "Diamonds In The Road" is a Stonehill-like story-song from childhood, and "To Believe" shows that having faith means God's faithfulness is something much more easily seen in retrospect than in looking at the present. Nanci Griffith's "It's A Hard Life" is given a reverently accurate treatment, sometimes right down to the faux-Irish accent that Griffith seems to possess naturally. The song is a condemnation of teaching racism to children, and this presentation is a more homey, anecdote-based approach to the issue than Raspberry Jam's stark "Hand-Me Down Hate." But I wonder if calling a racist "trash," as this song does, misses the ultimate point that passing judgment on the world for its sins (racist or not) is Christ's province, not ours.

Ultimately, this album comes across as a compromise. It has several songs that will undoubtedly do well on Christian radio, which seems to have been a priority for Warner Alliance. And it has several songs that long-standing fans like myself can dig into and enjoy. And overall, though for different reasons and for a somewhat different audience, this album is about as good as their first one (still available through mail order).

This duo has clear and unmistakable talent, both in songcraft and instruments. I hope that next time around, more of their own voice comes out, with less filtering by the Nashville music machine.