Music Reviews: Gene and Eunice, J.M. Kearns, Tim O’Brien & Jan Fabricius, Michael Arbenz & Andy Sheppard, and Comet Gain

Gene and Eunice, From Ko Ko Mo to Poco Loco: The Singles Collection 1954–62. If Gene and Eunice and the songs referenced in this anthology’s title ring no bells for you, you’re not alone. Gene Wilson (aka Gene Forrest) and Eunice Levy, a married couple, scored several hits in the 1950s but dented the pop charts only once, with “Poco Loco,” which reached No. 48 in 1959. Their career petered out after that, and today the work of these Texas natives is largely forgotten.

That’s unfortunate, because their material, most of it self-penned, is almost uniformly excellent. So is their vocal work on such Top 10 R&B hits from 1955 as “This Is My Story” and “Ko Ko Mo (I Love You So)” (not to be confused with the similarly titled Beach Boys hit). British music journalist Andrew Hickey has called the latter number, which the duo wrote with jazz trumpeter Jake Porter, “one of the most important records in early rock and roll.” In the first few months of 1955 alone, reports Wikipedia, 17 artists covered that novelty tune, and it produced hits for several of them. While not a big seller in the U.S., meanwhile, Gene and Eunice’s self-penned, West Indian–flavored “Bom Bom Lulu” garnered attention in Jamaica and prompted many artists there to record their compositions.

You’ll find all these songs and many other lost gems in this two-disc, 41-track anthology. It embraces tracks from six labels and draws on jazz, pop, New Orleans stylings, and doo-wop in addition to R&B. The program makes room for several solo recordings by Gene and Eunice, who split up in 1960, and, despite the title, it includes material that dates from as far back as 1951.

J.M. Kearns, Only the Love Songs. New Jersey–based folk singer/songwriter J.M. Kearns was already in his 70s by 2024, when he released his debut album, Before the Coffee Gets Too Cold. Since then, he has been making up for lost time, however. A sophomore LP, Songs of Surviving in the City, Vol. 1, followed later in 2024, and now Kearns is back with a third collection. Called Only the Love Songs, this set contains numbers that he penned between 1974 and 1999, though he recorded the vocals and/or music for half of them within the past two years.

Writing fresh-sounding lyrics about romantic love isn’t easy, but Kearns largely succeeds with the 14 understated folk songs on this digital-only release, not all of which feature backup musicians. Accompanying himself on guitar, Kearns sings gently about love’s many manifestations and ramifications. “Your Happiness Is Misplaced Tonight,” for example, presents the thoughts of a wedding guest who, says Kearns in a press release, “gets the deep impression that this isn’t the right guy for this girl and can’t say so, but cares deeply.” In the violin-spiced “I’m Going Down with the Ship,” meanwhile, he declares unconditional love, proclaiming, “If these seas are gonna sink us, I’m going down with the ship.”

Tim O’Brien & Jan Fabricius, Paper Flowers. The increasingly ubiquitous (at age 87!) Tom Paxton co-wrote 12 of the 15 songs on this album, which is billed as the “first real [recorded] collaboration” between married folk singer/songwriters Tim O’Brien and Jan Fabricius. O’Brien, who plays guitars, bouzouki, and fiddle, and Fabricius, who plays mandolin, have performed on stage together for a decade.

Assisted here by an eight-member backup crew, they deliver a satisfying, largely acoustic 15-song program that mixes lighthearted upbeat numbers like “Atchison,” “Fat Pile of Puppies” and “Lonesome Armadillo” with poignant ballads such as “Father of the Bride,” “Hungry Heart” (not the Springsteen song), and “Covenant,” which is sung in the voice of a parent whose son has died in a school mass shooting.

Michael Arbenz & Andy Sheppard, From Bach to Ellington—Live. Two of the greatest innovators in classical music and jazz inspired this live set, which pairs Swiss pianist, composer, and bandleader Michael Arbenz with British saxophonist Andy Sheppard. They recorded the album at a jazz club in Arbenz’s native Basel.

The setlist embraces four Ellington compositions: “Reflections in D,” a moody, languid number that dates from 1953; the placid, expansive “Melancholia”; “African Flower,” which the Duke first recorded for 1962’s Money Jungle; and “Warm Valley,” which Ellington’s great Blanton/Webster Band featured in 1940. Also here are Arbenz’s “Psalm,” which garners inspiration from Bach’s church “Cantata BWV145,” and the bright, elegant “Where It Springs into Being,” which draws on “Prelude in C Major,” a Bach keyboard composition.

This isn’t the first collaboration by Arbenz and Sheppard, nor is it their first encounter with at least some of this material. They have worked together for years in a group called Vein, and Arbenz issued a version of “Where It Springs into Being” on a 2024 album called Classicism—A Point of View. He also released a solo LP in 2023, Reflections in D, that consists solely of Ellington covers. Moreover, he and Sheppard have performed the introspective title cut from that album together in concert. On the new set, they play beautifully and with a rapport that evidences their long association and shared vision.

Comet Gain, Letters to Ordinary Outsiders. This bright, upbeat album from Comet Gain, a British indie pop group that has existed with various lineups since 1992, suggests that these cult favorites deserve a much bigger audience. The band’s first full-length CD since 2019’s Fireraisers Forever!, it mixes new numbers with tracks that have previously been available only digitally via Bandcamp.

All the material is by group founder David Christian, who supplies guitar work and most of the lead vocals. Other contributors include Ben Phillipson (guitar), Rachel Evans (vocals), Robin Christian (percussion), Anne Laure Guillain (keyboards), and James Hornsey (bass). Producer Sean Reed, a longtime colleague of Dexys Midnight Runners’ Kevin Rowland, pitches in on keyboards, brass, and vocals.

Addictive hooks, indelible melodies, and ringing, jangly guitar work permeate their album’s dozen emotionally rich tracks, which are interspersed with variously witty and obscure snippets of dialogue. The songs draw on late 1960s folk-rock bands and psychedelic outfits like the Syd Barrett–era Pink Floyd. You might also think of other British rock groups such as the Blue Aeroplanes and the Psychedelic Furs, and, when Evans sings lead, the Cranberries.