Released via Christian McBride's Mack Avenue Music Group imprint, Brother Mister Productions, and recorded at the legendary Sound Emporium Studios in Nashville, this exceptional nine-track album from the Nashville-based vocalist, trumpeter and composer Jennifer Hartswick came together when she and guitarist/producer Nick Cassarino secreted themselves away for a week and a half for an impromptu writing retreat in Vermont last winter.

With lyric input from songwriter Erin Boyd, from McBride's pulsating bass line which launches album opener ‘Only Time Will Tell’ to the hymnic beauty of the Dave Matthews/Mark Batson-penned ‘When I'm Weary’, which brings the album to a serene close, the ear-catching arrangements and captivating central performance from Hartswick ensure that each track crackles with emotion. The Cassarino-Boyd co-write ‘Fairytale’ is a perfect showcase for Hartswick's powerhouse vocal which blends mellifluously with the dynamic backing vocals provided by Cassarino and Celisse Henderson. Channelling a New Orleans-inspired shuffle groove, the entirely self-penned ‘By the River’ celebrates memories of childhood, with Hartswick clearly making good on the song's exhortation to “please never let the world extinguish that fire”.

Accompanied solely by the fulsome tones of McBride's acoustic bass, a cover of Randy Newman's ‘Guilty’ allows Hartswick's vocal to take flight, while her remarkable range sees the melodic line disappear into the stratosphere on the marble smooth ’Enamored’.