Globe and Mail

Everyone needs a walking stick, a little help to get along. Jim Byrnes of Vancouver uses Steve Dawson, the producer who co-dominates this blood-red, rich album of roots music. On a well-chosen collection of traditionals, originals and covers (including the old-jazzed Irving Berlin title track), you hear Byrnes and his lived-in baritone pushed up on the shoulders of a best-imaginable band, outstandingly marshalled. Background singers the Sojourners doo-wop it up sometimes, while going old-school churchy other places - the gospel-melodic Lookin' for a Love (a hit both for Sam Cooke and Bobby Womack) is given a pre-Motown vibe. Robbie Robertson's Ophelia, hugging and downhearted, uses Jesse Zubot on fiddle and Dawson on mellotron. A double bass carries the country soul of Talk in Circles. This is the third strong Byrnes-Dawson collaboration in five years, and it's the finest yet.