Jeremie Albino - Hard Time (2019)

From the very first note of his song, ‘Hard Time’, sweet-singing Jeremie Albino reminds us of the laid back and hazy tracks of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Smooth, modern soul, crossed with a folk-rock feel, it’s a song which will undoubtedly make you want to hear more from the artist who makes his home in the bucolic pleasant land of Prince Edward County.

After leaving his hometown of Toronto at the age of 18 to work on farms in nearby Prince Edward County, Jeremie Albino spent the next decade quietly honing his songwriting amid the region’s bucolic backdrop. That extended woodshedding experience has finally paid off: On his debut album, Albino already sounds like an old soul, one who’s clearly schooled in the ways of the blues, folk, gospel, and early rock ’n’ roll, but who never lets purism get in the way of simple pleasures. With a voice pitched somewhere between a young John Fogerty and Dan Auerbach, Albino’s congenial, soulful singing ensures Hard Time goes down easy, whether he’s initiating a romantic dance-floor dalliance on the sock-hop romp “Last Night” or investing the bounce of the title track with charming self-deprecation. But on stripped-down acoustic serenades like “The Cabin” and “Wildfire,” Albino taps into a more elemental spirit, as if he were summoning the ghosts from his favorite 78s into the modern world.