JERRY JOSEPH & THE JACKMORMONS : PANTHER TRACKS VOL. 1

JERRY JOSEPH & THE JACKMORMONS : PANTHER TRACKS VOL. 2

Frost Heaves
I Think I'm Here
Watching Me
Soda Man
Bright Young Thing
Pumpkin Time

Label : Cavity Search Records

Release Date : July 31, 2026

Length : 39:02

Review (Glide Magazine) : When Jerry Joseph and his band, The Jackmormons, released Panther Tracks, Vol. 1, last year (covered here), he suggested that there was enough material for probably four records. Here is the second one, Panther Tracks, Vol. 2 (Cavity Search Records). These are fan-favorite songs, rendered in the studio, as Dave Schools of Widespread Panic suggested a few years ago. The second installment of this four-volume series, like the first, went to drummer/producer Steve Drizos, who helmed the recording with the band and guests at The Panther studio in Portland, OR, not losing an ounce of ‘live’ energy in the process. The six original songs, all written at different points in Joseph’s four-decade career, were released as a subscription service for fans through Joseph’s website. Each month for a year, subscribers got a new song along with the story behind it. Joseph describes the collection as: “The songs are a document to the decades-long rollercoaster of faith and sin, catharsis and redemption, and love.” The album features the band’s core power trio – Joseph on guitar and vocals, Steven James Wright on bass, and Steve Drizos on drums. Frequent collaborators pianist Jenny Conlee (The Decemberists) and guitarist Eric Martinez join them, with the Dimpker Brothers, Paul Brainard, and Todd Wright each guesting on a song. The songs have four to seven contributors each, forming a much richer sound than simply a trio. The gently strummed “Frost Heaves,” which does not appear on any of his live records, has the trio augmented by Conlee’s keys, Martinez’s guitars, and Drizos’ synths. Joseph’s vocals build tension, using the metaphor of frost heaves to signify his emotions rising as he ponders rekindling a lost relationship against his better judgment. He’s spent countless times waiting for the thaw, yet each time the ground, like his mind, swells up, he’s tempted to return even though the chances are slim for a reprieve. Like the title, the music comes in swelling waves. “I Think I’m Here” struggles to recreate the rather half-forgotten/half-memorable time and place with a former lover, with trademark imagery such as ‘midnight eyes’ and ‘where the sea pours into space.’ Again, Conlee is aboard, and Brainard’s pedal steel and trumpet, along with Little Sue Weaver’s backing vocals, create huge sonic surges. “Watching Me” was written with Joseph’s friend, Woody Harrelson. The imaginative lyrics depict all kinds of lost souls looking down from the mysterious “up there” on a lonely character, imbued with glorious vocal harmonies from Wright, Drizos, and Conlee, whose piano is prominent. “Soda Man,” with its wash of synths, keys, and multiple guitars, is an epic track featuring one of Joseph’s strongest vocals. He takes us on a journey to the remote jungles of Costa Rica, while searching for salvation and menthol cigarettes. Ultimately, the song explores the contrast between childhood innocence and adult responsibilities, yearning for connection in the chorus: “Brother, brother, take my hand/I feel I lost my faith again/Sister, sister, hold my hand/I believe I lost my way again/The time has come, and we understand/Sweet forgiveness of soda man” Arguably, the most aggressive track is the punk-infused “Bright Young Thing,” rendered only by the trio plus Conlee. The title is from a chapter in a book by Sci-fi writer William Gibson, whom Joseph often references for inspiration. It appears on the 2003 live album Mouthful of Copper. Joseph delivers a litany of frustrations in basically a well-disguised political rant. At the time, Gaza was at the forefront of the news, and the song was written not long after the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999. The closer, “Pumpkin Time,” features both Martinez and Conlee augmenting the trio in a rave-up where Joseph, like in “Soda Man,” delves into nostalgia, ideas surrounding change, the given dread of life’s short cycles and its fleeting moments. That’s the melancholy part. Yet, like so many of his songs, there’s optimism too. “Pumpkin time’ symbolizes harvest and reward for hard work. Onward the cycle goes. Sure, there’s plenty of abstraction in Joseph’s lyrics, but that’s what makes him one of the best relatively under-the-radar songwriters of these times.

Review (Americana UK) : Jerry Joseph is fan favourite and greatly loved at AUK Towers. You can read any number of articles about him and his band in the back pages of the magazine, but the context in which this album is released is best explored in Tim Martin’s excellent review of its immediate predecessor Panther Tracks Volume 1 (here). Panther Tracks Volume 2 ( the second of what promises to be a four-volume series) continues in the same vein as Volume I, studio recordings of songs that Joseph and his band have been playing live regularly, but which, despite being firm favourites on the live circuit had never been laid down in the studio. The omissions are repaired here. Joseph allegedly has a back catalogue of more than 400 songs, so, unsurprisingly, his live performances can vary from gig to gig, especially as he often plays solo, rather than with his crack band, the Jackmormons, made up of Joseph on electric guitar, Steven James Wright on bass, and Steve Drizos (also producer) on drums and synths. Over the years, some of his best songs (for he is also a very good songwriter – “long one of my favourite songwriters, one of the absolute best of our generation” according to Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers) lay unrecorded until the decision to embark on this new series. Joseph is now in his mid-60s and has lived what you might call a varied and interesting life – born in San Diego but sent to boarding school in New Zealand, from where he was deported for various examples of juvenile delinquency, forming a band in the early 80s, the first of many collaborations over the years, often running in parallel with the band that he formed in 1996, The Jackmormons; this has been his regular band over the last thirty years despite changing personnel early on in its life. He had issues with addiction from which he recovered in the 90s. Joseph has worked with any number of other artists who recognise his talents, many of whom have appeared on his numerous solo or collaborative recordings over the years. So, we have Panther Tracks Volume 2 (named after Drizos’ studio in Portland), another helping of a potpourri of rock and americana styles, from Prog rock to the Band to punk rock and to Neil Young, delivered with great panache by the trio, with the spendid addition of Jenny Conlee (The Decemberists) on piano and keys, Eric Martinez on additional electric guitars, Sweden’s Dimpker Brothers on harmonies together with Little Sue Weaver and Todd Wright on selected tracks, and Paul Brainard, with a magnificent turn on trumpet and steel guitar on the second track. Frost Heavies, the opener, has a great slow riff to start then breaks into mid-tempo rock territory on a song that explores the possibilities of reactivating a long-lost relationship, but against one’s better judgment. Call-back vocals are a feature here and often throughout the album, while Conlee adds great texture on various keyboards and acoustic piano. I Think I’m Here is an upbeat song about reviewing past times with a lover, some memories good and some not so much. It’s a countryfied rocker with a cinematic feel, with Conlee prominent again, some great harmonies and the muted trumpet and steel guitar of Brainard in a fantastic wall of sound that swells and retreats, then swells again over its 6 and a half minutes, as the guests duel with Joseph’s powerful guitar. The song and arrangement have echoes of Michael McDermott or even Honey Harper from their 2022 album. Watching Me, written with Joseph’s friend Woody Harrelson, has the usual swathe of sound, before a soaring guitar solo emerging, with great callback vocals on the title line and Conlee once again to the fore (she really is a star ingredient), as synths swirl around the rather abstract lyrics about heavenly surveillance and the comfort of family. Soda Man starts with subtle synths and an acoustic guitar riff before Wright’s wonderfully dark bass line that rumbles throughout the track about journeying into deepest jungles, searching for salvation and exploring the links between youth and adulthood, as Joseph lets loose with his most Neil Young-like solo, and Conlee’s organ towards the end rounds off rather nicely its nearly 9 minutes. A truly great perfomance, it’s a gorgeous melange of sound and possibly Drizos’ best performance on the album, with light conga-style percussion adding to his sharp drumming. Bright Young Thing is the shortest track on the album at under 4 minutes, on a faster punk-like, slightly 70s-sounding muted political statement, with call-back vocals and a farfisa-sounding organ in the background. To finish Joseph treats us to the rolling Pumpkin Time, reflecting on life’s fleeting moments “All the things you could’ve done / Years you can’t get back / Pumpkin time, it’s pumpkin time / Better keep your head, pumpkin time”. Usual great harmonies, some dirty guitar work, piano, synths and organ all creating the ubiquitous wall of sound in a final flourish. This is a really excellent album indeed, bridging the small divide between rock and americana with some fine songs, superb playing and polished as-live production and, as my colleague Tim noted, you just want to hit play again.