Little Miss Higgins

There’s something in the water out in Junction City, known now as Nokomis, Saskatchewan. How else to explain the phenomenon of Jolene Higgins, Little Miss to you? With Junction City, her second CD, she’s become an exciting old-time traditional blues/jazz practitioner. The majority of the songs are from her pen, although you’d be forgiven for assuming the entire set was written more than 60 years ago. Songs like "The Dirty Old Tractor Song,” with its unique double-entendre, or "In the Middle of Nowhere,” a tribute steeped in living tradition about Higgins’ adopted home, which once was an important CN and CP railway line stop. Higgins possesses an expressive vocal style and like one of her inspirations, Memphis Minnie, she plays a mean, swinging guitar too. Ably supported by musical life partner Foy Taylor on guitar and various friends on mandolin, string bass, clarinet and subdues drums, this is a superb recording.