The littlest prisoner

"Scheinman's songwriting on The Littlest Prisoner observes, remembers without regret, and testifies to abundant life, all from the inside. Her voice is crystalline, it inquires as it affirms. It draws the other instruments toward it as ingredients in a spell. Her music is rootsy and grounded, but performed with elegance, while her lyrics, though often poignant and gritty, are delivered with grace".

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"Boundary-pushing jazz violinist, composer, arranger and sometime singer Jenny Scheinman (...) convincingly adds "Americana singer-songwriter" to her bio. For an Americana album, Scheinman may have the world's most overqualified backup band, consisting primarily of [Bill] Frisell on guitar and Brian Blade on drums and harmony vocals. The melodies, built on familiar country and bluegrass structures, might make you think you have heard them before. But the lyrics, by turns gritty and poetic - about poisoned love, dysfunctional families and generally desperate characters - remind you that you haven't ... Frisell plays brilliantly, as usual, like someone exploring a spooky old attic littered with curios and treasures; each shimmering harmonic is like a little discovery. The stark approach of this disc puts Scheinman's unaffected, plaintive voice front and center and lets her deliver the unsettling lyrics with stiletto-like precision".