If I were to ask someone, in the year 2008, to name a male folk singer from the 1960's I would assume that if I were to get an answer to that question that the name would be Bob Dylan. And that would be a good and appropriate choice. One can endlessly dispute whether or not Dylan was (or wanted to be) the voice of the Generation of '68 but in terms of longevity and productivity he fits the bill as a known quality. However, there were a slew of other male folk singers who tried to find their niche in the folk milieu and who, like Dylan, today continue to produce work and to perform. The artist under review Jesse Winchester is one such singer/songwriter.

The following is a question that I have been posing in reviewing the work of a number of male folk singers from the 1960's and it is certainly an appropriate question to ask of Jesse as well. I do not know if Jesse Winchester, like his contemporary Bob Dylan, started out wanting to be the king of the hill among male folk singers but he certainly had some things going for him. A decent acoustic guitar but a very interesting voice to fit the lyrics of love, hope and longing that he was singing about at the time. Of course, the need to go to Canada as a draft exile from the Vietnam War perhaps necessarily cut across some of those youthful dreams.

As for the songs themselves, many that evokes the Southern roots from which Winchester came Silly Heart is evocative of that. Other nice touches are Full Moon and North Star You Strong. But the one I have always liked personally, and here my roots show, is Glory To The Day. That song still evokes memories of flower children. Hell, I had a relationship with a woman like the one he describes once. Didn't we all (male or female), back then.

Jesse Winchester's eponymous 1970 debut established him as an impressive songwriting and singing talent, and was especially enjoyable due to the involvement of Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm of The Band. Two years later we get Third Down, 110 to Go, on which Winchester stretches out, no longer under the auspices of Robertson's help. The result is an album every bit as strong as his debut, but with an even more unique sound without as much of a Band stamp on it.

The album spins off with "Isn't That So," a slinky, bluesy groover. Acoustic and electric guitars blend together as Winchester catalogs his favorite parts of life in a mock dialog with god. Clocking in at 2:26, it's one of the longer songs on the album--although the songs on his debut weren't long by any means, this album features much more concise, simple arrangements that never stay too long to get old. "Dangerous Fun" is a beautiful ditty, showing off Winchester's knack for inventing compelling turns-of-phrase--it takes "nothing to pity yourself/but it's sort of dangerous fun." "Full Moon" may not rock as hard as anything from Jesse Winchester, but it might groove even harder--his voice has more of a soulful edge than before.

Especially invigorating is Winchester's almost mystical enthusiasm for the world and life in general--"North Star" is a pulsing ode to life with some gentle touches of flute. "Do It" inverts life's hardships into joy, with a great Camus reference. One of the aspects that I like the most about this album is the instrumental arrangement--Winchester's fingerpicked guitar is more delicate, but subtly dynamic than ever evidenced on Jesse Winchester, and things like the hand drums, flute, violin, hand claps, and backing vocals that pop on "Lullaby For the First Born" and elsewhere add really excellent flourishes to his thoughtful, well-crafted, and catchy folky songs. If anything, I'd say that not only does this album sound a lot less like The Band, it comes close to achieving a surprisingly unique sound that, despite its simplicity, I've never quite heard anywhere else.

Some other highlights include the tender ode to day and night, "Glory To the Day," the bright, sparkling "Silly Heart." Like any great album, though, there aren't any weak songs in this set, thanks to Winchester's ability to place his own fascinating stamp on the moments and feelings that he chronicles in his songs. I haven't owned either of his first two albums long enough to say for sure, but I have a feeling that I'll return to the honest, quiet intensity of Third Down, 110 to Go a bit more than his debut, but I highly recommend both to fans of folk and country singer-songwriters.

One of the great singer-songwriter albums, with a much cleaner sound than on JW's debut (produced by Robbie Robertson) and a determined, against-the-odds optimism (as the title suggests). Some of the lyrics go over the edge into cute (the business about tickling the world's belly button), but not many. Jesse's voice is lovely. Note that Amazon's song list here leaves off the concluding song, All of Your Stories, which is definitely one of JW's most beautiful. And that's saying a lot.

The first five songs here have some of the most haunting and simple and spirited lyrics written. Music has great melodies, but the lyrics are special. First got this one in 1972. "if the wheel is fixed, I will still take the chance... when you're skating on thin ice, then you might as well dance."

Most Australians, ignorant of CFL football terminology, would find this title willfully obscure; from the margins(which is where Jesse likely imagined himself). Winchester's first album showed its author in mugshot sulleness, outlaw, draft dodger from the terror of Vietnam. It was almost impossible to find in Australia until the mid 70s(as were the brilliant early works of others recording in Canada;Cockburn's, 'Sunwheel',Tony Kosinec's,'Bad Girl's Songs',& Ellen McIllwaine's,'The Real'). Though not as rounded as '3rd Down', with Biloxi, Yankee Lady, The Brand New Tennessee Waltz, and the spine tingling Black Dog, it seeded songs that would be central to his performances for several decades. However, it is '3rd Down' that revealed a more content character, revelling in parenthood(Do La Lay) and less anxious and nostalgic about the sacrifices of his Southern life by choosing expatriation in Montreal. This is full bloom stuff. The foggier, rockabilly tracks, pulled from an aborted album produced by Todd Rundgren, provide textural contrast to the acoustic flavour of the rest.'Glory To the Day' is among them, and is one of the most crystalline, superb songs from a career which has issued so many gems. There are the briefest pauses, litening to a stone as it falls into a well, where Jesse himself seems to be listening for the sound. It may be overstatement to venture this as a sacred moment . But this and several such moments on this disc remain privileged for me.The 1989 compilation,from Rhino, reveals that marvellous songs issued at regular intervals over two decades. However,'3rd Down' is the most balanced session with its everso brief, seemingly banal ditties, biting into timelessness. It's 15 years since that'Best Of' and the late 90s,'Live At The Mountain Stage' indicates that if his muse has visited less often, he certainly hasn't been sitting on his hands. Those exquisite pipes are as rich and poignant as they were when his career commenced. At a time when budding singer/songwriters were being foisted upon us each month, Winchester has endured and embedded himself in our soundtrack when the James Taylors, the Jackson Brownes, the Don McLeans have receeded. His reach was never that of the proselyetizer,the moralist, the introspectivley indulgent, or the epic. Time and distance are no longer swirling undercurrents on this outing. He exalts in the intimate present with a purity rarely achieved in pop music. Indeed, its folky/ gospelly, whatever, sounded at once both ancient and novel, as had the Band's,'Big Pink' a few years earlier.And like that 'work', it bounces with loving, respectful 'play'.