CD: Jorma Kaukonen "Stars in My Crown"

Jorma's exploration of inventive American music began in 1965 backing Janis Joplin and later with classic bands Jefferson Airplace & Hot Tuna. Jorma continues the musical journey cooking up this tasty collection of down-home country blues, gospel and bluegrass, produced by Byron House. Five years after Blue Country Heart, Stars in My Crown finds Jorma Kaukonen continuing and expanding on that Grammy-nominated work. It's again a relaxed setting, but the stylistic range has taken on a compelling diversity. Not generally a prolific writer, Kaukonen has written a welcome five of the disc's fourteen numbers this time out. They range from the perfect and prayerful opener "Overture: Heart Temporary," with its 12-piece string section holding his acoustic guitar and vocal aloft, to the lilting instrumental "A Life Well Lived." Kaukonen's choice of covers has left him room to make them his own, while also adding to the portrait of who he is as an artist, and how he got there. It would be ri