LOADED

Jeff & Vida win The Big Easy Award in 2005 for best folk/country artist in New Orleans. Here's what the Gambit has to say on LOADED: Judging by their third album, Loaded, Jeff & Vida are red-blooded meat eaters (and if they're vegetarian, they eat hearty vegetables). Based on the evidence here and on their previous album, The Simplest Plans, country and bluegrass aren't sounds for them to admire like Faberge eggs or goof on like the kids who eats paste, nor do they play them to celebrate America's poor folk. Instead, their CDs sound like the natural expressions of passionately led lives. On "Baby Don't You Do Me Wrong," for instance, it sounds like cheating on Vida Wakeman would earn the cheater at least the chance to duck flying crockery, and if that was all, he should consider himself lucky. There's a swagger in her performance as if she enjoys her own intensity, but Wakeman's not just a hot mama. On "Everybody's Darling," she sounds convincingly wise, while her voice softens and sounds in need of protection in "Blessed But Not Favored." In short, in songs that sound like they come from lives actually led, she sounds like a real person with a healthy complement of emotions. Both Wakeman and Jeff Burke have pop backgrounds, having come to acoustic music in their teens. The chops are there -- Burke's a fleet, clean mandolin and banjo player -- but the song remains the thing. In their case, this means urban songs, or songs that don't require city listeners to identify with their country cousins. It also means that while they appreciate tradition, they aren't purists. "Blacktop Shine" romanticizes growing up in a way John Mellencamp might recognize, and "I Cried" is a lovely jazz ballad that could be a standard if jazz standards can still be created at this late date. -- Rawls