theStar.com

Journeyman guitarist/mandolin player, Sarah Harmer sidekick and master, it seems, of just about any instrument that requires plucking, strumming, sliding or picking, Joey Wright is in his element with his second CD, the acoustically loaded and eclectically instrumental Jalopy. Eleven originals and one cover – Duke Ellington's "Come Sunday" – encompass an enormous amount of musical terrain, from jazz to bluegrass, from country to flights of pure cinematic fancy, without ever straying beyond this gifted young musician's own organic boundaries. Multi-award-winning Vancouver resonator/fiddle team Steve Dawson and Jesse Dubot (Dawson's also the founder of the Black Hen label, home to Wright's wife and regular musical partner, Jenny Whiteley), stand-up bassist Joe Phillips and mandolinist/step-brother Dan Whiteley lend considerable help, but the bulk of the credit for the fascinating music on Jalopy belongs to its composer and perpetrator, and to David Travers-Smith, who engineered, mixed and mastered. 3.5 Stars

-Greg Quill