Allison Scull & Victor Martin

Mt. Shasta-area musicians Allison Scull and Victor Martin have produced a nice little laid-back CD featuring jazzy, folky tunes. Most of the pieces are originals, the exceptions being Billie Holiday’s “Don’t Explain” and John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery.” Scull plays guitar with a rhythmic surety, and her voice is a solid alto with which she demonstrates a pleasant playfulness on the melodies, although curiously lacking in vibrato especially where it would seem most appropriate. Martin’s saxophone delivers nice warm phrases, and his harmony vocals add much depth to most of the pieces.

The original song lyrics describe nothing exceptional: lazy holidays spent at home by the fire ("Holiday at Home"), reflections on a hard life ("Patrick’s Song"), longings for a lost friend ("Indian J.D."), the search for higher meaning ("Something Greater"), romantic deception ("That’s Not Love"), and so forth. Still, if all you want is something well performed, well produced and enjoyably unobtrusive to put on in the background, this could be just what you’re looking for.