JJ Schultz's second CD is his first as the JJ Schultz Band. What first hits you is that this Chicago-based singer-songwriter has gone Dylan. The guitars, drums and occasional harmonica are present in the background giving loose support and all the room this hard-driving singer needs. These country-rock songs are cool and contagious and after a while a little addictive.

Tom Wait's "Ol' 55" has the relaxed and loose feeling of an after-hours session, but a sympathetic Schultz knows how to get down into the roots of this classic. His own material that dominates this CD, also has deep roots in the style, including the loosely structured "Ol' Billy the Cab Driver" and the well-named "The Lonesome Truck Driver". The quieter numbers alternate with livelier stuff that give the band room to stretch out. The raucous "Drinkin' You Off My Mind" and the hard-driving "Speed Train" are very good and original up-tempo numbers.

Jerod Schultz is an imaginative songwriter who brings just the right voice and intensity to his work. Every song of the JJ Schultz Band tells it straight. He certainly had it right when he sent me his 10-song CD with the note that this album "would appeal to you." Something to me is that rare masterpiece that is worth the trouble to hunt down and bring it on home. (Maurice Dielemans)

4.5 stars out of 5
Earlier this year Altcountry.nl praised JJ Schultz' Bustin' Outa Town, a wonderful compilation of dustbowl country folk. JJ Schultz now appears to have his own band, and what a band it is. Besides JJ "The JJ Schultz Band" has a drummer and a bass player, and no less than guitarists (slide and Telecaster). This means that "Something To Me" (Last Stop Records) has a full, roving and rattling sound in the footsteps of Crazy Horse, without it sounding too heavy. Meaning it sounds exactly right. The endless row of telephone poles on the album cover already indicates that endless travelling is the overall theme of this great CD. And yes, the great leaving; the unwanted goodbye. Over the course of ten songs Schultz uncovers the white underbelly of today's America. The narrative, syrupy songs have titles like Ol' Billy The Cab Driver, He Drives and The Lonesome Truck driver, and from a musical standpoint the JJ Schultz Band swings like the proverbial train with its destination somewhere close to Sixteen Horsepower or even The Gun Club. Ballads are also safe in JJ's hands because slide, electrical guitar and Schultz' melancholy touch to the core. The cover of Ol' '55 is slightly superfluous, but you get full compensation by the tearing gallop of Drinkin' You Off My Mind: 'George Jones where are you now? I need you in my desperate hour.' Something To Me places JJ Schultz among unknown but very much loved country-rocking troubadours such as Steve Wedemeyer, Nels Andrews, Thomas Denver Jonsson, David Wolfenberger or Ramsey Midwood. What's great about Something To Me is that Schultz proves his capacity of not only creating wonderful country folk songs but also superior grating and enticing country rock songs. From that angle this Jerod Schultz is truly a gigantic talent. This man deserves worldwide distribution. Top class distributors this side of the ocean such as Sonic Rendezvous and Munich can feel confident about signing this class act. (Wiebren Rijkeboer)

4.5 stars out of 5
These days new faces and names seem to be ruling the land of singer-songwriters. It takes somebody with a certain standing to be able to sift the wheat from the chaff. This, however, presents no difficulty for this JJ Schultz. The man who last year came out with the rather impressive debut album "Bustin' Outa Town" now confirms all the good things that were said and written about him with the recently released follow-up "Something To Me". On the one hand he explicitly refers to established (country) singer-songwriter-examples the likes of Townes Van Zandt, a Guy Clark, a Willie Nelson and a Merle Haggard, on the other hand a carefully incorporated rock element creates the infamous little bit extra. Call it the Dylan touch. Sandpaper voice, electric guitar here and there, gritty mouth-organ, each in turn adds a little extra colour. Because of that JJ Schultz and his band's Americana is given something irresistible. To listen is to buy! And... you'll continue to listen! The only non-Schultz-track is an insanely beautiful cover of Tom Waits' "Ol' 55". Besides that the good man sticks to his own material. Strongest moments: the carefully (roots)rocking opener "Jackie You, Jackie Me" and the intimate, somewhat elegiac triplet "The Lonesome Truckdriver", "He Drives" and "Something To Me". Impressive stuff!

Barely recovered from our first introduction to JJ Schultz' music (the slightly fantastic Bustin' Outa Town) JJ launches his second projectile our way. This time it is a band record, where, over the course of ten songs (equal shares Dylan and Haggard) and 43 minutes, our man demonstrates what Americana should sound like and what, exactly, is meant by it. One carefully chosen and brilliantly performed cover (Waits' Ol' 55) and nine of his own songs are all that's required. I know teachers who are less efficient. Whoever manages to write songs like Drinkin' You Off My Mind, with its wonderful mouth-organ and slide guitar (of Fred Odell and Scott Robertson respectively), cannot really go wrong in our books. Ol' Billy The Cab Driver changes tack completely: the drawling and emptiness ooze from the speakers. The loneliness of the man who experiences how his loved one gets to know somebody else and who is incapable of doing anything about it... we all know the feeling, but few manage to write such a beautiful song about it like Schultz did in Someone Who's Not Me. He is just as good writing from the point of view of the father who is leaving his family behind and it does not make him happy (He Drives) or from the point of view of the man who takes his own life after witnessing the death of his girlfriend (Something To Me). By showing he is capable of all of the above Schultz proves he should be ranked among today's greatest songwriters. Add the characteristic voice and the unmistakable sense for melody and you have a full package. It is time, HIGH TIME, for you to discover JJ Schultz! (DH)

(Review by James Clark)

This collection has traces of Young, Farrar, Parsons and a little Arlo Guthrie in it. With the welcome rise and rise of the American singer/songwriter showing no signs of slacking it's getting harder to pick the real talent out of the swirling mass, especially with the number of new acts emerging. It's no exaggeration to say that Schultz is definitely in with a chance of rising to the top of the pot. This excellent record provides all the elements - thoughtful, lilting tracks, an individual voice and great musicianship, but it also has that x-factor that separates the CD one might play occasionally from the one which is straight on to the MP3 player after a single listen. The record is almost entirely acoustic, and Schultz is at his strongest alone with his guitar, but refreshingly the tracks into which he imports slide guitar, violin, drums, stand-up bass, harmonica or mandolin don't feel over-produced or fleshed-out. Schultz, a Californian, is helped by a distinctive voice, complete with the odd hitch here and there (most noticeable on "Max My Dog"). Fans of the acoustic genre will almost certainly approve, and if they happen to think a song's not a song without tipping its hat to dust, dogs, love, beer and radiators they'll be all the happier. Of the ten studio and two live tracks on the record, the six-minute "Country Backroad", the story of a refrigerator repairman driving home to propose to his girlfriend, is the defining composition. There's plenty of good fare for the alt-country listener to get their teeth into, with tracks like "Song Of The Independent Rancher" and the title track "Bustin' Outa Town", and a good deal of humour too thanks to "Me And Elvis (We'd Be Friends)" and "Need A Pen". Joyfully difficult to categorise, this collection has traces of Young, Farrar, Parsons and a little Arlo Guthrie, together with the gritty American story telling of Earle and Van Zandt in it and introduces a singer/songwriter with the genuine potential to rise to the next level.

(Review by Craig Bonnell)

It's hard to type the JJ Schultz Band living in Chicago and not think JJ Fish (fast food fish parlour). Anyway just a quick post for Sunday morning. Folk-country no doubt inspired by equal parts Townes Van Zandt and Merle Hagard. JJ Schultz voice, guitar playing and songs make for an impressive package from an up and coming young americana artist. Released in 2004 on the Last Stop Label in San Francisco Bustin Outa Town has been steadily selling and I imagine gaining the attention of a&r guys from some of the larger indie Americana labels (if not then they can read about him here and contact JJ through his site).

The Italy based country music website "Planet Country" published a review of "Bustin' Outa Town". If you read Italian, click here to check it out.

For those of us who don't speak Italian, Crystal Eastman was kind enough to provide a translation:
"My Dad is a big fan of Harry Chapin and Cat Stevens, and so I grew up listening those guys as well as of the Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash I could find in my parents records collection". Harry Chapin, Willie Nelson, Cat Stevens but also Pete Seeger and Townes Van Zandt are definitely artists reflected in the music of J.J.Schultz, a modern "hobo" [folk singer] from Wisconsin who arrives on these pages of Planetcountry with Bustin' Outa Town from Last Stop Records (P.O.Box 320718 San Francisco, CA 94132). Almost entirely acoustic, (voice and guitar), the album recaptures all the folk revival allure of the great singersongerwriter tradition of Stelle and Strisce, where the songs—little windows into the life of the Midwest—recount real stories and where people sing above all to give into the spirit of poetry and not to chase after mind-blowing records sales. And there is a lot of poetry in the lyrics of this J.J.Schultz, you just need to listen Song Of the Independent Rancher, the title track of Bustin' Outa Town or the beautiful Max My Dog. Even if (or perhaps because of this) Bustin' Outa Town doesn't blow your mind, it is an enchanted and charismatic album, that captures the typical mentality of Americana country culture (have you seen O Brother Where Art Thou?). "It's a good road trip music. Its' a good beer drinkin' music…. My songs tell a story- I hope you like them". To find out more: www.jjschultz.com - Gianluca Sitta (Planet Country)

JJ Schultz's new album Bustin' Outa Town is a great mix of american musical traditions. His song are written with the smoothness and clarity that reminds a listener of the great Townes Van Zant and his sad cowboy tunes of the sixties and seventies. And JJ sings with grit and tenacity that would make Willie Nelson proud, all the while playing and picking his nylon string Talyor in such a style that would make the country legend shed a smile I'm sure.

But while JJ may invoke memories of the great cowboy singer-songwriters, he certainly is his own man and his own voice. His songs tread through Americana, and the experiences of growing up in the midwest. They are mix of experiences on the personal, family, and K9 level.

Whether were ridin' with them across the Dakota Plains in the title track "Bustin' outa town," or sitting in a old hotel room with'm in the Great North Woods in "Need a pen," at everystep along the way we feel more and more connected to the characters of these ballads, and JJ is the one who puts us there. His music is sad at times and hilarious at others, often forcing up deep memories in our own lives.

I picked up this album a couple of days before driving from San Francisco to Austin, and their could not have been a better choice of music to coast me through the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico and on into the Texas Hill Country. JJ Schultz is a force that will be heard, and his is a voice that certainly needs to be heard.

"Bustin' Outa Town" and "Independent Rancher" were put up for review on garageband.com.

Bustin Outa Town gotta bunch of good reviews. Click here to see what they say.
Song of the Independent Rancher got a lot of rave reviews and is being featured as "Track of the day" on September 4th, 2004. Click here to see what people are saying.

"Bustin' Outa Town" and "Independent Rancher" were put up for review on songramp.com.
Click here to see what random, non-anonymous people think.

A number people have written reviews of my "Bustin' Outa Town" album over at CD Baby.
Click here (and scroll all the way to the bottom) to see what people who've bought the CD think.