Come Around

Tony Scherr has had a career as one of New York's most sought-after jazz bassists. He has played with the Lounge Lizards, Jesse Harris & the Ferdinandos, Bill Frisell, Sex Mob, and Slowpoke, to name a few. But Come Around, Scherr's solo debut, is something else entirely. With crunchy guitars, Chris Brown's Hammond organ, and horn and string arrangements, Scherr has crafted a warm album of country-tinged rock songs that glances back at the Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed in the same way that Alejandro Escovedo's underappreciated A Man Under the Influence does. Sure, Scherr's tunes tend to ramble and meander more, without the instant gratification of the Stones or Escovedo, but this gives them a quality like the pop work of Jim O'Rourke and even the dark, off-kilter, David Lynch-worthy experimentation of "What Kind of Friend Are You" is incredibly rewarding. The title track, with its pure '70s country-rock groove, is the real winner and is ready and waiting for a Ryan Adams cover. Come Around manages to build an atmosphere that beautifully evokes the bittersweet lost American dreams and would-be soulful road trips of the Southwest and California, and what's all the more amazing is that Tony Scherr recorded the album in his house.