It takes about one minute for Jefferson Fox to hit the midway on “Don’t Go There”. For the first sixty seconds, there is a lot of reflection about self support and maybe a little sabotage of same. As a carnival organ leads the way for the music to hit its stride, memories of places he’s been, and the observations made, come pouring in. Jefferson travels the country through song, the trunk tags come in the form of city names and one liners that can be picked up and used for other stops on the road of life. The song is a calling card opener for his recent release, ‘Chronicles of Harvey’, and the intro sets the standard for the album. Following suit, characters and tales bounce around like pinball inside his head, coming out as valuable insights that clock in around the three or four minute range.
The sound on ‘Chronicles of Harvey’ takes advantage of the near limitless well that is American Roots music. “Bait and Switch” comes on like a sunny day outside, the arrangement a mix of riffs and rhythms. “The Inconvenience of Dying” stumbles along in a straight as horns, piano, guitar and percussion share a drunken revel. Meaty machismo rhythms anchor “Soul For Sale” while “Paperback” relies on acoustic rhythm for a more organic style that the story line can stretch across and unfold. Though the instrumentation comes across as random hits, all notes hit their mark and frame the songs perfectly. The delivery and vocals help to create a structure within the calculated chaos.
Jefferson Fox holds a magnifying glass to life, peeling away the soft light gauze on 
our actions, allowing the scent of warm flesh and blood to waft in. That look at real life, letting in the good and the bad, and learning from both, is his way of doing business as a songwriter. The honest re-telling of tales, and the creation of new ones from old stories, trademarks the songs of Jefferson Fox. He bares his soul, letting promises pin him to his decision on “Smoke”, memories take form as time slips its hold and we glimpse back to the days of Grandpa and his cronies in “Ghost Story”.
Jefferson Fox’s vocals whisper, rising like smoke from the surface of the songs. The wisps of words circle the stories, matching the instruments flexible note patterns. For more on Jefferson Fox, look in his website Danny McCloskey
