Jeffrey Dean Foster – The Leaves Turn Upside Down

A talented North Carolina songwriter and a twang-pop vet from the ’80s (with Right Profile) and early ’90s (Carneys), Jeffrey Dean Foster made a splash in 1998 with the Pinetops and their disc Above Ground And Vertical. This acoustic live EP is a solo stopgap between studio records; as such, the lo-fi, clinking-beer-bottle ambiance conveys pleasures of the fleetingly intimate, rather than the ornately crafted, sense.

The charm of new compositions (the strummy, jangly “Lover True”, which neatly plays with the phrasings of “lover” and “love her”) and Pinetops material (the beautiful spectral drone of the aptly titled “So Lonesome I Could Fly”) gets cemented by Foster’s keening upper register, a satisfying cross between Roger McGuinn and Alex Chilton. There’s left-field artistry afoot as well: Looped-in short-wave and electronic sounds and brief keyboard segments serve as segues, lending the set a spooky but appropriate autumnal vibe.