It’s been a strange stretch of days, weeks and months, to say the least, with the highway ahead sure to be filled with even more potholes and ill-placed rumble strips. Life is life, after all. For all the unkempt roads we drive down during our time on Earth, however, there are as many smooth streets and synchronized traffic lights, allowing us to all but fly for miles and miles at a time.
Jackie Minton’s Sagesse provides a perfect soundtrack for both bumpy and comfortable rides. First and foremost, there’s her voice, which flows low and rises high, and conveys the many hues of the heart along the way. “Voice” takes on another dimension here, though, as these are songs that, lyrically speaking, reflect a vision unique to her that has been shaped by her Catholic faith.
I am neither Catholic nor overtly religious, I should mention, yet for the past few months I’ve been thumbing through Contemporary Catholic Poetry: An Anthology. (As I noted in this essay a few months back, Diane and I are friends with one of its editors.) To borrow from something the poet Dana Gioia observes in “The Angel With Broken Wings”:
For even the godless feel something in a church,
A twinge of hope, fear? Who knows what it is?
A trembling unaccounted by their laws,
An ancient memory they can’t dismiss.
Sagesse leans on the Bible’s seven books of wisdom for inspiration, i.e. the Book of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Song of Solomon (Song of Songs), Wisdom of Solomon, and Ecclesiasticus (Wisdom of Sirach). One need not know them, however, to enjoy the songs. “Understand,” which opens the set, attempts to bridge the differences that too often divide us. As she noted on Instagram, “I think we could all be a little better at listening and hearing out the other side of the story, myself included.”
“Case of Lonely,” written while returning home after an extended time abroad, is an artful treatise on the loneliness that often punctuates life. “Time To,” which I spotlighted a while back, is a gem that leans on Ecclesiastes for its chorus. “Dance With You,” for its part, is a gentle sway of a song that celebrates the fear and trepidation that comes from putting yourself out there—or, to dovetail back to “Case of Lonely,” wanting to do so.
“Before You Grow,” a duet with her friend JP Anthony, explores the ups and downs of life and growth, and how storms—and sadness—eventually pass. “So Let Go,” which she wrote for a future her, reminds us to be clear-eyed about both our roots and what lies ahead: “New days are gonna come our way/If we have open eyes to see/And open hands to receive.” The seven-song set closes with the beautiful “Magdalene,” which—as many do—applies the Old Testament’s Song of Songs to Mary Magdalene.
In short, Sagesse is a spiritual outing that sports a folk-pop sheen, with the emphasis on Minton’s silky vocals and insightful lyrics. It’s far from the musings of a cranky mystic, a la Van Morrison, but artful meditations by a devout practitioner who has enough faith to let her songs speak for themselves. It’s a wonderful set.
The track list:
The Old Grey Cat 
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