Music Reviews
Aug-Sep 2004
Time After Time
Jake Mathews, Open Road
 Considered one of the rising stars on the Canadian country music scene, Jake Mathews has landed his first major label deal with Open Road and a label mate of The Wilkinsons and Jason McCoy.
As a live performer Mathews projects a straight up, no nonsense approach to making country music and thankfully the label saw fit to not stray from the territory where the artist is most comfortable. In short, there is no game plan to turn Mathews into a new country act.
Pulling tunes from proven writers like Dean Dillon, who has penned numerous George Strait hits, the Grammy-winning Carl Jackson, Jim Lauderdale and Harley Allen provided a rock solid foundation and Mathews never lacks in conviction as an interpreter.
As a tunesmith Mathews also steps up to the plate and delivers with a handful of originals, the best of the batch being You Got Away With Love and Kings For A Day, a new ode to honky-tonks.
From top to bottom this is a well-crafted album that finds Mathews in the company of some of Nashville's and Alberta's most gifted and sympathetic producers and pickers. Expect to hear tunes like Time After Time, Arizona On My Mind, and Payin' Your Dues repeatedly on your favorite country radio station over the next year.
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