Jo Fabro - Don't Make a Liar Out of Me

“The birth of this album and this band was completely accidental” says Fabro, who in 2017/2018 was toying with the idea of heading over to Nashville record a solo blues project.

“I was writing steadily for that project, and I just needed hear some of the tunes fleshed out with a band, so I called on my oldest musician friends and they agreed to come and jam with me and it just clicked”.

The plan was to spend some time playing, refining the songs, saving some money and then head overseas…then COVID happened. What initially began as a jam session, turned in to a source of solace for all the members of Fabro’s band.

“When we would get together and play, it really was a way that we kept our sanity. I am so grateful to the guys for that time, and that experienced has influenced so much for my writing since that point. So, this new album is “my album”; they are my songs; and this is my release, but I can’t untangle it from these musicians, they’re my family”.

The name of Fabro’s new album “Don’t Make A Liar Out Of Me”, is a reference to the song that brought the band together. It is the song that Fabro was desperate to hear fleshed out by live musicians.

“Sometimes when you write something, you have a really clear idea in your head about what it should sound like, but you just need to hear it. I brought it to the guys, and they just brought it to life, exactly as I had imagined. It was like they had always been playing it”.

When you listen to the album you can hear how tight this band really is. Blues Guitarist Adam Pringle is a stalwart of power on the guitar. Jerry Craib brings a beautiful sensibility to the bass and drummer James Hauptmann is one of the most organic drummers in town. Together they work.

Most strikingly, you can hear that Fabro has at last found her place. She sings with the confidence of someone saying, “this is it, take it or leave it”. It would be easy to peg this album as being a contemporary soul or blues album, when in fact the strength of the song-writing means that this album has so much appeal for so many different people.

People who like music, people who like heart, people who want to be moved. The title track (Don’t Make A liar out of me) draws on all the contemporary Blues sensibility of artists such as Bonnie Raitt and Tedeschi Trucks. With rolling dark tones and lyrics that talk about the moments in a relationship in which you stand your ground and call your partner to take ownership of their role in that relationship. The first single (Parallel to the Tram) is a party anthem with rock/pop roots akin to The Black Keys. There are also moments of beautiful melodic flight (The Looking Glass) and personal reflection (Waterloo).

All of these moments are unified by Fabro’s powerful vocal and strong storytelling skills. At the risk of sounding like a cliche, this is an album about life, love and relationships, but one told with such honesty and realism that there is no cliche to be found.