Blue Light 'til Dawn

Danny Kopelson engineered and mixed. Brandon Ross plays steel-string, octave and classical guitars and arranged, Charlie Burnham violin and mandocello, Kenny Davis bass, Cyro Baptista, Jeff Haynes, Vinx and Lance Carter percussion, with Olu Dara on cornet, Don Byron on clarinet and Chris Whitley on national resophonic guitar. The title, she told New York magazine, refers to that light, that blue, giving way to the dawn. It includes two Robert Johnson songs, "Come On in My Kitchen" and "Hellhound on My Trail", Joni Mitchell's "Black Crow", Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey", "I Can't Stand the Rain" and her own "Sankofa", "Redbone" and the title track. AllMusic's Ron Wynn gave it 5 stars and Rolling Stone's John Milward 3.5. Jazz Journal's Bruce Crowther called the opener a beautiful and sensitive rendering. A 2014 reissue adds live versions of "Black Crow", "Skylark" and "Tupelo Honey".