Jackie Greene

At the ripe old age of 20, Jackie Greene is still a diamond in the rough. The Placerville native, wise beyond his years, has adopted the mantle of itinerant troubadour—a persona that’s served other guitar-slinging, harmonica-blowing folkies quite well, from Woody Guthrie forward. Yes, you could fault Greene’s being a whippersnapper for his new-Dylan pretensions, but he does what he does so well that who cares? Greene already has mastered form. The triple threat that opens this set of a dozen originals—the title cut, “Tell Me Mama, Tell Me Right” and “Travelin’ Song”—convey a mastery of that merger of folk and blues styles that ignited rock music’s mid-1960s groundswell. He’s an adroit finger-style guitarist, harp player and pianist, too, and his backup—regular bassist Hence Phillips and drummer Ben Lefever, plus others—is sensitive and sweet. With a little more life experience, Greene will be unstoppable.