This came out in 2000 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Listening to Winnipeg blues singer-guitarist Kristi Johnston’s impressive debut album, it’s impossible not to think of Bonnie Raitt. But not the current model Raitt.
With her joyfully raw vocals and skilled, emotive playing, Johnston is more like Raitt circa ’74 — a gifted journeywoman for whom the blues is as much a lifestyle as a musical one. The fact that Johnston has steeped herself in the music is evident both in the wide-ranging styles of her well-crafted originals (Train jumps from a jazzy swing to a bouncy blues; If I Ain’t Got is a rough-and-tumble Mississippi stomper in the mold of R.L. Burnside; The Moose Is Loose boasts the fancy, funky fretwork of greasy Texas blues) and the due respect she shows cover tunes (Sonny Boy Williamson’s Eyesight To The Blind is delivered with an authentic Chicago bounce; Jimmy Rogers’ That’s All Right gets a wonderfully languid, smoky treatment). Better catch Johnston around town while you still can. Once the disc gets out, we might not see much of her in these parts anymore.
