Scrappy Jud Newcomb is known (what little he’s known outside of Austin, anyhow) as a Loose Diamond, a Resentment, and an Imperial Golden Crown Harmonizer, and as a sidekick to both Toni Price and Beaver Nelson, among others. His guitar work is impeccable, and he’s building a solid reputation as a producer.
On his solo debut, Turbinado, Newcomb shows he can write songs, too. The dozen tracks here feature the kinds of phrases with both enough specificity and enough room around them to grab and hold attention: “With the eyes of a child lost in a crowd,” “Are you trying to get drunk sucking on one of these empty bottles,” “Smoke moving toward an open window.” Newcomb takes the catchy, light, upbeat “Night Of The Arrival” in an unexpected direction when he sings, “Hey there lovely, lit up by a candle/Watching your head melt with a head full of wine/Hey there lovely, I know what I cannot handle/Weren’t the days grand before you lost your mind.”
On “People, People”, he sounds a little like Tom Waits or Jon Dee Graham on a gospel trip toward the day of reckoning. On the rest of Turbinado, Newcomb’s vocals are soft, somewhere between Stephen Bruton’s and Vince Bell’s, with, on a song or two, a hint of Bob Dylan’s breathiness. Bruce Hughes adds bass, piano, soundblocks and kalimba; Conrad Choucroun contributes piano, drums and additional percussion.