Artist:     Jonah Tolchin

Album:     Fires for the Cold

Label:     Yep Roc

Release Date:     9.19.2019 

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This young New Jersey-based artist, Jonah Tolchin, is mature beyond his years. He produces, plays guitar and writes. And wow! Can he write! Not every song on Fires for the Cold is a gem, but he has plenty of them in this gentle, comforting, melodic effort. The opening “Supermarket Rage,” which features Sara Watkins on harmony vocal and fiddle, is one of those seductively melodic tunes that just lingers in your head for days. The same can be said for “Honeysuckle” which also features Watkins, and a few others, too.

Attesting to his talent are those helping him make this record. The co-producer is Grammy-winning musician, engineer and producer Sheldon Gomberg, who enlisted a core band of drummer Jay Bellerose, upright bassist Sebastian Steinberg and keyboardist Will Gramling, augmented by star studded array of guests. In addition to Watkins, Little Feats’ Fred Tackett plays three different string instruments on a cover of his band’s “Roll Um Easy” which also has Jackson Browne and Rickie Lee Jones on vocals, with Greg Leisz on pedal steel. Wow, again. There are a few other instruments in the mix too including two playing a bowed Acro wah bass on “Timeless River” (more on that later) and cello on “Day by Day.”

One little anecdote about the wah bass is reflective of the positive energy in making the record. The story, as told by Gomberg relating to “Timeless River” goes this way: “…In the chorus section, I heard an electric upright bass, bowed, with a wah-wah pedal. Because of my health issues, specifically MS, I haven’t been able to play for a number of years now, but I knew I wanted the part, so we had to try it. We grabbed my bow and electric upright but could not position the bass where I could hold or play it, and I couldn’t hold the bow, either, so I came up with the idea that I would grab the bow like a Neanderthal and hold on for dear life. I asked Jonah to “fret” the notes on the neck, and we had Bill Mims (assistant engineer) do the wah-wah pedal. It took a village, but we got it done!” Tolchin commented that “This was the one of the most powerful experiences I have ever had, inside or outside of the studio.”

The album follows a turbulent period in Tolchin’s life, as the ending of marriage and subsequent struggles of sorting out his emotions made for a few difficult years. He says, “….The album became a healing process. I’m sure other people go through similar things, whether it has to do with today’s culture or their own relationships. After all, we live in a crazy world. We’re forced to create our own meaning of existence. I found it was okay not to know everything, and it was okay to let things go.”

Cathartic or otherwise, his writing yielded some beautiful melodies and emotive moments. Other than those already mentioned, we have the steady determination of “Day By Day” and the infectious plodding beat of “Timeless River.” Tolchin points to four that are especially meaningful to him. “White Toyota Ranger” comes from his observation of a stranger who parked next to him in the back of a gas station and just sat in his car and cried his eyes out- “Looking at the tears fall of a stranger/Parked in the back of a gas station/Wondering what became of the nation.” The cover “Roll Um Easy’ is a nod to his childhood. Another favorite is the closing “Maybe I’m a Rolling Stone,” cut live with just Tolchin, Bellerose and Steinberg, in which he poses a series of existential questions paid off with the title line.

Tolchin has delivered a uniquely sounding, deeply memorable recording.

—Jim Hynes