Rating: NNN
“Pleasant, songwriterly Americana produced by Shawn Mullins and Jerry Harrison” is the fastest way to sum up Josh Joplin’s Useful Music. But, as is often the case with gifted performers who’ve bobbed around the States auditing various scenes, there’s slightly more to it than that — namely, piles of sharp imagery and a sense that this guy knows what he’s talking about when he talks about longing. An ode to long-dead protest singer Phil Ochs offers a deeper glimpse of Joplin’s stylistic frame of reference.K
