Instrumental fusion music has a pretty wide range, from high-powered electric music with guitars and synthesizers wailing, to more acoustic, jazzy sounding material. Usually the stylistic thread running through it is the influence of jazz. But there are a lot of great musicians in Nashville, and sometimes they make their own music with country and Americana providing a sort of underlying basis for their efforts. Last year, we featured a mostly instrumental album by guitarist and producer John Leventhal, who has worked extensively with folk and country artists, and composer William Tyler has also done some country-influenced fusion in a laid-back style.

This week, we have another interesting largely instrumental album from Nashville-based musicians that features the improvisational tendencies of jazz with a generally more contemplative sound. It’s by fiddler and keyboard man John Mailander and his group Forecast, and the new release is called Let the World In.

John Mailander is a graduate of he Berklee College of Music, and since he settled in Nashville, he has found work as a sideman and studio musician, with the likes of Norah Jones, Billy Strings, Keller Williams, Tony Trischka, Peter Rowan and even Lin-Manuel Miranda.. He is currently a member of Bruce Hornsby’s band the Noisemakers. The new album puts him in the company of Nashville colleagues, bassist Ethan Jodziewicz, acoustic guitarist Jake Stargel, Chris Lippincott on steel guitar, Mark Raudabaugh on drums, and David Willford on sax.

The musical mood on the album often has a vaguely bittersweet quality, with most of the pieces in minor keys, and fairly unhurried tempos. But the album brings together some interesting sonic textures with Mailander’s fiddle often being the focus, but with a laid back sort of rootsy groove.

The rather short 35 minute album’s first full piece is the title track Let the World In. It sets the pace with it’s slightly bittersweet musical mood while having a melodic quality. Mailander’s fiddle is center stage. <<>> But the piece takes a few unexpected twists to keep it interesting. <<>>

A track called Gardener seems like a kind of lowdown country-flavored blues, with the steel guitar giving a twang to the bluesy composition. <<>>

There are a couple of short pieces called Improvisations. The first is the opposite of the slow-and-steady approach of the rest of the album, with a minute and a quarter of musical chaos. <<>>

But that settles into Chapters another minor-key tune with an almost dirge-like quality. <<>>

A lot jazzier is a piece called Heartland with a melodic, mostly acoustic sound, and with the sax being balanced by the twang of the steel guitar. <<>>

Probably the most interesting track is its longest at about nine and a half minutes. It’s called Road and it again combines the sort of Americana folk-melody influence with a steady rock beat, and dynamics that build toward the end. It has a kind of jam-band quality. It’s the album’s only vocal, though not for long. <<>>

The album closes with a short piano solo called Reprise, played on what sounds like an upright piano that’s slightly out of tune, giving it a suitably rustic quality. <<>>

Let the World In by John Mailander’s group Forecast, is an engaging album that is another example of instrumental fusion music coming from a country-influenced perspective. Mailander’s fiddle takes the lead, but not all the time. It’s more of an ensemble recording. The music can have a melancholy aura, but that may be just you might need at times, with the interesting sonic textures and the amiably melodic compositions. The band is first-rate and their understated performances add to the subtle appeal of the album.

Our grade for audio quality is a B, for a good mix, but points are deducted, as usual, for the volume compression that makes everything come out at the same loudness, and it saps the sonic energy and impact from the drums.

Country influence and jazz-rock fusion may seem like an unlikely combination, but John Mailander’s Forecast pulls it off nicely on their new album.

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<<>> indicates audio excerpt played in produced radio review

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