The best way to describe Dream a Little Dream,the second album from Katie Glassman & Snapshot, would be Western swing with a touch of jazz. Glassman, an award winning fiddler and appealing vocalist, fronts a dynamic quartet featuring Eric Moon on piano and accordion, Greg Schochet on guitar, and Charlie Mertens on bass. It is an ensemble with a happy, retro sound that will get you rolling back the living room carpet and dancing, or at the very least tapping that proverbial toe.
Glassman and crew romp through an 11-tune set, combining traditional pieces played with joyful respect and original material with a contemporary slant that may be well on its way to becoming the traditional songs of the future. A song like Glassman and Moon’s “Little Dream of Mine” has a vocal sound reminiscent of an oldie like “Making Whoopie” (close your eyes and you can hear Eddie Cantor), but a lyric that drips with irony as an allusion to “Dream a Little Dream of Me.” Moss’s jive piece “Not Stickin’ Around” combines a lively modernist lyric with some jazzy elements and an old-fashioned lick or two. Glassman’s “Sweet Lies,” on the other hand, is the very model of the plaintive ballad, here with a guest vocal assist from Tim O’Brien, who also joins in on “My Window Faces South.”
They open with the album with their version of the traditional “Liza Jane,” and later add a rocking take on “I Don’t Care if the Sun Don’t Shine” that could do a lot to resurrect that old chestnut. The vocal is infectious, and the solo work is dynamic. These are all musicians who can play. Indeed, without taking anything away from Glassman’s vocals, the three instrumental tracks — “Rutland’s Reel,” “Pampas Envy,” and Duke Ellington’s “Jubilee Stomp” — are some of the most listenable on the album.
Dream a Little Dream is a feel-good album from an ensemble of talented musicians. Their joy in their music is contagious: listen and you’ll find yourself hooked.
First published on Blogcritics.
