'Third down, 110 to go":

Jesse Winchester. Warner Brothers WBS 2102. Reviewed by P.F. O'Dea.

Jesse Winchester is an Amerikan, domiciled [unclear: n] Canada since 1969 when he moved there to escape the draft. 'Third down, 110 to go" is [unclear: his] second album — the first was released over[unclear: eas] about two-and-a-half years ago and was pervaded by bitterness — the result, one [unclear: issumes], of his forced expatriation. Fortu- [unclear: latcly], this gem of an album finds him in a much happier state of mind.

Sessions for the album began with the Full Tilt Boogie Band, the same group that supplied the backing for Jams Joplin's Pearl". Relations between Winchester and the band grew strained and fell apart in the studio, however, so he handpicked a different set of session men. None of those he came up with are "known", but their performance is all that could be wished for. Three tracks were recorded in 1970 under the guidance of Todd Rundgren, but they are similar stylistically to the later material.

No strings of adjectives this time around: quite simply. Winchester is a genius, in the only sense of the word. If you buy one album this year, make it this one. Using acoustic guitar, flute and puno with consummate artistry, he's attained a standard that most artists could struggle for all their lives and still never come near.

Of the 13 songs only one runs to over three minutes, and each one says more within its alloted time span than most other performers could say with an entire album. I hesitate to select single tracks because of the overall consistency, but the opener, "Isn't that so", seems to me to be one of the two highlights. The seemingly simple guitar backdrop sets an uneasy mood for a fine critique of plausible, but fallacious reasoning: "Didn't He know what he was doing putting eyes inside my head?/ If He didn't want me watching women/ He'd a left my eyeballs dead" ....... "You've gotta go where your heart says go/ Isn't that so?"

The other outstanding track is North Star, a perverse, brilliantly sustained flight of allegorical fancy, underscored by a solo acoustic guitar: "Does the world have a belly button/ I can't get this out of my head/ Cause if it turns up in my yard/ I'll tickle it so hard/ that the world's gonna laugh to wake the dead".