CHRIS JAGGER: “Atcha” (Sequel)

I VAGUELY remember Chris Jagger recording a couple of singles in or around the late Sixties, but his has hardly been a career to rival that of elder brother Michael Phillip. Not so much a case of lowlights, rather no lights at all.

Surprising, then, to report that Atcha is not at all a bad album, possessed of a Cajun-country feel, and shot through with a fun feel as if the musicians actually enjoyed themselves in its making.

This choice of direction is of itself admirable in that it steers him away from the obvious comparisons with Ol’ Rubberlips, who actually appears on backing vocals on two tracks and also in that it gets the best out of a fine band which includes both Ed Deane (who plays some great guitar throughout) and Robin McKidd, fiddler with Seventies’ cult outfit High Speed Grass, and occasional Rab Noakes sideman.

Songs like ‘Blow The Zydeco’ and ‘Stand Up For The Foot’ should be mandatory inclusions on any good-time music compilation while ‘Snow On The Mountain’ could be a hit single for someone breaking out of Nashville.

If, after eleven years in my present abode, I finally get around to having a housewarming, Atcha would be pretty close to the top of the pile of albums I’d wanna dance to. Infectious as measles, but without their side effects, it forcibly suggests that maybe Chris Jagger shouldn’t have been so bashful about his talent all these years.

Atcha boy!

• Oliver P. Sweeney