Jonathan Kieran

by Jonathan Kieran 11/1/23

Despite being a legend and indisputable musical maverick (or “outlaw”), Grammy Hall of Fame singer-songwriter Jessi Colter has had an enigmatic career, to be certain. Some might call it a “career, interrupted”. Others might—and do—point to the difficulty of maintaining commercial autonomy in a household and marketplace where her husband, the late, great Waylon Jennings, came to cast such a long and overwhelming shadow. We have all seen how well marriages between artists competing in the same entertainment marketplace tend to fare: something—or someone—has usually got to give.

Still others will point to the actual facts of the matter and assert that, despite a striking twenty-five year hiatus from popular music and recording, Colter never really abandoned her craft for a moment. They will tell you that she continued to write, play her fabulous piano, record privately, and tour extensively as a beloved guest artist with Jennings before making an acclaimed return to the wider musical landscape after his 2002 death with two—and now three—terrific legacy albums. Her brand new release, Edge of Forever, not only reasserts the foundations of Colter’s original creative genius, but solidifies the shape and spirit of her unique, ongoing influence as a poetic Lady Troubadour imbued with wisdom that can only come from a rip-roaring sixty-year artistic and spiritual journey.

Colter’s previous albums in 2006 (Out of the Ashes) and 2017 (The Psalms) easily—and delightfully—matched the very best of her first four, truly groundbreaking, self-written Capitol albums in the 1970s. With this new LP, Edge of Forever, however, the Queen of Outlaw music may well have surpassed her own iconic standards. Produced with exquisite sensitivity, instinct, and just the right amount of old/new flair by talented Nashville hellcat and Lady Outlaw heir-apparent, Margo Price, this album features all of the things that made millions of people love Jessi Colter in the first place.

Foot-stomping roadhouse gems like the psychedelic title song hearken back to funky rockers like Is There Any Way (the bold opener from 1975’s watershed I’m Jessi Colter) and give way to heartbreaking, wistful ballads like Angel in the Fire, where Colter summons the same mesmerizing gothic emotion that made her I’m Not Lisa such a haunting classic and gigantic global chart hit across pop, country, and Adult Contemporary lists. Perhaps just as splendidly, two not-fully-realized tunes from her more obscure back catalogue (I Wanna Be With You and Maybe You Should) are resurrected to rousingly improved, downright catchy effect, here, and the amazing thing throughout is that Colter’s singing seems even stronger and more assured than in her halcyon days, if possible. Price deserves extra kudos for helping Colter utterly transform what were a couple of unusually moribund songs from lesser-known LPs into hit-worthy triumphs on this set.

Ultimately, Edge of Forever is a dazzling showcase for Colter’s too-frequently overlooked genius as a songwriter, stylist, and piano player. Tunes like Lost Love Song and With or Without You shimmer with the unique mix of heart-tugging emotion and sass that Colter’s earthy, unique talent has always been able to bring to the table and serve-up piping hot. You can tell she’s having an absolute blast with these songs and with the knockout backing band (the Price Tags) because the listener is having a blast simply discovering this feast for the soul. The songs are unveiled like glimmering jewels, one after another. Blues, lovelorn country, country-rock, honky tonk—all the ingredients Jessi Colter has been able to mix powerfully as an artist are stewed here in one irresistible jambalaya of satisfying song-craft, engineered to perfection by her son, Grammy-winner Shooter Jennings.

And it must be said that the entire record is threaded by a beautiful new yearning quality, one reminiscent (at least to me) of John Prine’s knowing and bittersweet glimpses of love, loss, and the rollicking freedom of being alive. But the sound, experience, and ambience are all Jessi. Classic Jessi, yet fresh as the dewfall. The album closer, Secret Place (featuring Jessi’s daughter, Jenni), is as uplifting and spellbinding as any of the great tunes with which Colter has famously concluded her best song-cycles on past LPs; the exultant scope of Secret Place stands toe-to-toe with Storms Never Last, I See Your Face (In The Morning’s Window), New Wine, and especially Please Carry Me Home.

Fun, foot-tapping, mesmerizing, heartbreaking, thoughtful, gorgeous, and sonically seamless, Edge of Forever is a masterclass by a lady who knows how to deliver. If this is to be Colter’s musical swan song, she could not have come up with a more appealing and satisfying studio farewell. Easily one of the best records of the year, bar none. One hopes that this stellar work will garner kudos similar to the slightly overhyped (in my opinion) comeback effort, While I’m Still Livin’, by Tanya Tucker from two years ago. That album was a truly fine work and Tucker has always been a fabulous singer and soulful interpreter, as well as a wild-child, but she hasn’t deserved the sheen of maverick/outlaw status lately conferred upon her. Tucker’s career was built upon picking good songs written by the Nashville “factory” and she never learned to play an instrument. Wild personal behavior a musical maverick (or “outlaw”) does not make; it’s all about the song-craft in its fullness, going against the industrial establishment assembly-line.

Jessi Colter, on the other hand, has always flaunted the Nashville establishment by being a no-holds-barred, piano-driven creator and interpreter of her own compositions, a stylist and poetess who had no need for Music Row’s phalanx of tunesmiths while writing and releasing her own highly successful material, backed by touring musicians (including LA rock stalwarts) who were not part of the older, approved studio system in Music City. Perhaps this is why Nashville accepted Colter happily into their fold but never knew quite what to do with her when her pop-chart success began to taper off, wobbling perhaps a bit too much between worlds in the early 1980s without staying fully committed to the pop-rock, gospel and ahead-of-her-time Americana blues that formed her mighty foundation. But those were notoriously stressful times for the Jennings/Colter marriage, which thankfully survived and thrived. Colter’s public recording career went AWOL for a quarter-century after this.

Even so, the “innovator” plaudits recently showered upon the superb Tanya Tucker are still far more appropriately applied to Colter—who was every bit the creative “outlaw” (and perhaps more-so) that Waylon Jennings was at his best. One senses, too, that the road to recognition may be difficult for Colter’s new masterpiece: she is working with a very small indie label (Appalachian Record Company). Generating publicity that beguiles and sticks is a challenge for the very best outfits these days.

Whatever the case, the Edge of Forever is here and now. Rediscover an old friend or make a new one: Jessi Colter has always been the real deal and proves it again in a big, bold way, with elegance, grit, and a clarion-call enchantment in her songs.

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[Jonathan is busy writing and illustrating and finishing a whole slew of projects in preparation for upcoming major releases. Don’t expect a helluva lot of bloggin’ to get done unless something really strikes his fancy. Be patient. Marvelous things are on the way.]

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