Live from Mountain Stage
This modest live album offers a rare glimpse of a truly great Southern  singer-songwriter, but it may frustrate fans as much as it intrigues listeners  unfamiliar with his work. At his best, Jesse Winchester weaves gospel, folk,  blues, and country threads into graceful, intelligent music that reflects his  origins in Louisiana, rural Mississippi, and Memphis. He sings in a honeyed  drawl about affairs of the heart, small moments of deep feeling, and mysteries  of the spirit with a rare balance of clarity and gravity. This set captures  Winchester accompanied only by his spare gut-string acoustic guitar, a setting  that emphasizes song craft but eclipses his skill at solid ensemble  arrangements. The repertoire favors Winchester's more recent output while  overlooking or underselling his earlier songs, thus reducing exquisite  signatures like "Brand-New Tennessee Waltz" and "Yankee Lady" to pale echoes of  their original power and depicting their author as a folk poet instead of the  versatile musician his past albums and infrequent tours have revealed.--Sam  Sutherland