Jenna Nicholls
The Commuter
(Royal Potato Family)
Jenna Nicholls’s fourth album, The Commuter, presents like an artist’s fully fleshed out vision come to life. Her distinct timbre and angelically acrobatic vocal command is perfectly suited to the emotional interpretation of vintage blues, jazz, traditional Americana, and swing. As such, Nicholls claims this early to mid-19th-century chanteuse chapeau with confidence and grace. The songs, reminiscent of swampy juke joints and prohibition honky-tonk speakeasies, are immediately familiar. Inspired by the muse of travel and transition from the Lower East Side, heading north on the Hudson Line, The Commuter deftly transports the listener from the pageantry of raucous cabaret to the balladry of love and wistfulness. Perhaps cementing the arrival of the Hudson Valley newcomer was the intuitive and symbiotic decision to seek out Woodstock’s own Larry Campbell (Bob Dylan, Levon Helm, Mavis Staples, et al) as producer/multi-instrumentalist. Campbell’s instinctive production and arrangements, combined with his instrumental prowess and dexterity, seizes on the collaborative process and exceptional chops of all the players.
This article appears in January 2026.
