Something to me by The JJ Schultz Band

The narrative, syrupy songs have titles like Ol' Billy The Cab Driver, He Drives and The Lonesome Truck driver, and from a musical standpoint the JJ Schultz Band swings like the proverbial train with its destination somewhere close to Sixteen Horsepower or even The Gun Club. Ballads are also safe in JJ's hands because slide, electrical guitar and Schultz' melancholy touch to the core. The cover of Ol' '55 is slightly superfluous, but you get full compensation by the tearing gallop of Drinkin' You Off My Mind: 'George Jones where are you now? I need you in my desperate hour.' Something To Me places JJ Schultz among unknown but very much loved country-rocking troubadours such as Steve Wedemeyer, Nels Andrews, Thomas Denver Jonsson, David Wolfenberger or Ramsey Midwood. What's great about Something To Me is that Schultz proves his capacity of not only creating wonderful country folk songs but also superior grating and enticing country rock songs. From that angle this Jerod Schultz is truly a gigantic talent. This man deserves worldwide distribution. Top class distributors this side of the ocean such as Sonic Rendezvous and Munich can feel confident about signing this class act. (Wiebren Rijkeboer)

http://www.altcountry.nl/recensiesokt05.html#schultzb

ctrlaltcountry.be (4.5 stars out of 5)

These days new faces and names seem to be ruling the land of singer-songwriters. It takes somebody with a certain standing to be able to sift the wheat from the chaff. This, however, presents no difficulty for this JJ Schultz. The man who last year came out with the rather impressive debut album "Bustin' Outa Town" now confirms all the good things that were said and written about him with the recently released follow-up "Something To Me". On the one hand he explicitly refers to established (country) singer-songwriter-examples the likes of Townes Van Zandt, a Guy Clark, a Willie Nelson and a Merle Haggard, on the other hand a carefully incorporated rock element creates the infamous little bit extra. Call it the Dylan touch. Sandpaper voice, electric guitar here and there, gritty mouth-organ, each in turn adds a little extra colour. Because of that JJ Schultz and his band's Americana is given something irresistible. To listen is to buy! And... you'll continue to listen! The only non-Schultz-track is an insanely beautiful cover of Tom Waits' "Ol' 55". Besides that the good man sticks to his own material. Strongest moments: the carefully (roots)rocking opener "Jackie You, Jackie Me" and the intimate, somewhat elegiac triplet "The Lonesome Truckdriver", "He Drives" and "Something To Me". Impressive stuff!

http://www.ctrlaltcountry.be/Pagina1ArchiefOktober2005.htm#JJSchultzBand

MazzMuzikaS

Barely recovered from our first introduction to JJ Schultz' music (the slightly fantastic Bustin' Outa Town) JJ launches his second projectile our way. This time it is a band record, where, over the course of ten songs (equal shares Dylan and Haggard) and 43 minutes, our man demonstrates what Americana should sound like and what, exactly, is meant by it. One carefully chosen and brilliantly performed cover (Waits' Ol' 55) and nine of his own songs are all that's required. I know teachers who are less efficient. Whoever manages to write songs like Drinkin' You Off My Mind, with its wonderful mouth-organ and slide guitar (of Fred Odell and Scott Robertson respectively), cannot really go wrong in our books. Ol' Billy The Cab Driver changes tack completely: the drawling and emptiness ooze from the speakers. The loneliness of the man who experiences how his loved one gets to know somebody else and who is incapable of doing anything about it... we all know the feeling, but few manage to write such a beautiful song about it like Schultz did in Someone Who's Not Me. He is just as good writing from the point of view of the father who is leaving his family behind and it does not make him happy (He Drives) or from the point of view of the man who kills his girlfriend she herself bought in the corner store (Something To Me). By showing he is capable of all of the above Schultz proves he should be ranked among today's greatest songwriters. Add the characteristic voice and the unmistakable sense for melody and you have a full package. It is time, HIGH TIME, for you to discover JJ Schultz! (DH)

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