For those unaware, from singer/songwriter Paul Kahn comes Willingness, a six-song EP that is as much a musical memoir as it is a record. Written and demoed over decades, these deeply personal originals found their moment when Kahn’s longtime friend Catherine Russell - one of jazz and roots music’s most celebrated vocalists - heard them and insisted they be recorded.

Russell produces and performs throughout, contributing backing vocals, mandolin, keyboard, and arrangements alongside her longtime musical director Matt Munisteri (guitars), Saturday Night Live house band drummer Shawn Pelton, and first-call bassist Russell Hall. Special guests include Ben Rosenblum (accordion), Sara Caswell (Hardanger fiddle), Glenn Patscha (Hammond C3), and Veronica Dye (flute).

Drawing on Americana, bluegrass, jazz, and roots music, Willingness is warm, direct, and fully alive - a songwriter’s album in the best sense of the word. Fans of Mose Allison, Dave Frishberg, and the roots-informed vocal jazz of Catherine Russell will find much to love here.

1. Stain on My Sleeve
2. Memory Lane
3. Willingness
4. Pull Another Leaf from the Clover
5. Carrie Ann
6. No One to Cry to

With all these songs being a collection of Kahn’s original compositions, written over 25 years ago and forgotten when he became known more as a producer, he opens his new recording on the rhythmical reggae-hued Stain on My Sleeve and the low slung, blues-imbibed Memory Lane, before an aching yearn is found threading throughout the dulcet title track Willingness, the smoothly gentle bounce-pop of Pull Another Leaf from the Clover, the new set rounding out on the rockier Carrie Ann, coming to a close on the languishing troubadour balladry of No One to Cry to.

Paul Kahn @ Instagram