CD Review: Jim Cramer
Although I don’t live there anymore, there is a fondness in my heart for my hometown (Tucson). There’s an area of that city that I used to spend a lot of time in – 4th Avenue – which is the haunt of Tucson’s hippie community. I used to linger there in the evenings, listening to open mic poets read their works at late night cafes. And I used to wander there during the day, picking up clothes at the thrift stores and listening to the strumming guitars of people sitting outside at sidewalk tables. When I think of this place, I think of a strong sense of community made up of artists and poets, kindness and concern for the world. The music off of Jim Cramer’s CD reminds me of this part of home.
This is the kind of music that I can imagine enjoying all day long … while sipping chai tea in an Indian restaurant filled with the smell of Nag Champa … while winding down after a long hike through the desert landscape … while getting tipsy off of a red wine in a place where the centerpiece of tables is a hookah. It’s the kind of music that makes me want to dance barefoot in rough sand, wearing a skirt made from hemp and a necklace made from flowers. It’s the kind of music that makes me feel at peace.
Jim’s CD is a set of ten tracks. Mostly, it’s an aural display of the intimate relationship between a man and his guitar. Although one track, “Black Ain’t So Blue”, opens this relationship up to the piano talent of Kurt Thum. The instrumental introduction to this song goes straight into your vein and rides the blood to your heart, and it is in this song that Jim’s voice fully opens up and shows off the emotion it holds. Despite this, my favorite song on the CD is “Easier To Spill”. This song really showcases the rock sound of Jim’s folk-rock style; his voice has that textured sound that’s more rock than folk and it rises along with the music to demand your attention. While the other songs are pretty, “Easier to Spill” is skilled. It’s the one song that doesn’t make me think more of my current home here in the city than my old home in the desert.
Jim Cramer is a Berkeley performer but he’ll be playing this weekend in San Jose for any of you who want to travel out of the city to see good music. Otherwise, check out his music on MySpace.
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