The Carmen Ratti Band featuring Jill Dineen

Come to Me

MoMojo Records

The evolution of the Carmen Ratti Band featuring Jill Dineen hits an explosive zenith on Come to Me. The San Francisco Bay Area band released its debut, The Road Back, in 2021. The album presented guitarist Ratti and vocalist Dineen two years into their partnership, leading their band with producer Kid Andersen at his Greaseland Studios in San Jose through a solid, promising set of soul/blues songs. Come to Me is another story entirely, lighting the promise ablaze. Ratti and Dineen, now in lockstep with one another, took an entirely new band back to Greaseland and cut ten original songs. Their focus on top quality is apparent at every crucial turn.

Dineen’s “No Delusion” opens the set on a skip-stepping, funky beat, the heat of the melody rising in intensity by Dineen’s delivery of her crafty punch line, “You got a lot of surface baby; haven’t even scratched it yet.” Her rich, wide-ranging voice instantly demands attention, as does her songwriting. A Californian by way of North Carolina, Chicago, and now back to California, Dineen combines sultriness and self-confidence without any of the histrionics present in other singers of her ilk. She’s natural, seemingly possessing the ability to tame a tiger and then shatter glass a moment later. For his part, Ratti weaves robust, crystalline notes throughout the song, never overplaying but offering plenty of notice as to his talent. Keyboardist Tony “Macaroni” Lufrano, bassist Steve Hazlewood, and drummer Randy Hayes rounds out the band, their excellence also clearly discerned, especially in the manner Andersen captured it all.

Like a beehive, Come to Me features melodies thick with honey but packing plenty of sting. The superb sequencing of the songs—another of the qualities that helps make an album stand out—is in evidence right away as “No Delusion” gives way to “Get in Line,” a rocking tour-de-force of soul by Dineen and songwriting partner David Fulford. The tempo then changes dramatically once again for the title track, a Ratti/Dineen composition nearly spiritual in its expression of the blues. Dineen soars vocally, Lufrano—very impressive throughout the album—adds supreme texture doubling on piano and organ, and Ratti pleads through his guitar right alongside Dineen.

Carmen Ratti had given up on music for a “regular job” for some time before the urge took hold of him again and he formed this band in 2018. He sure made the right move. Listen to “Blessing in the Blues,” which bounces on an irresistible, somewhat New Orleans-y melody. The song builds a head of steam once Ratti plays his first scrumptious solo. But it’s in “Comin’ Down,” a Ratti-penned rocker that also appeared on the band’s debut, that he really shows his superb way around the neck of a guitar. Ratti also sings, and in his sly “About You,” he delivers the “exit, stage left” news with coarse, unflinching conviction over the driving rock ‘n’ roll of the band.

The Carmen Ratti Band featuring Jill Dineen deliver preeminent songs and performances all the way through Come to Me. If you appreciate Tedeschi Trucks Band, Ruthie Foster, or newer acts such as Bywater Call or Joyann Parker, this album is for you. For me, if Jill Dineen tried to sell me the Brooklynn Bridge in that voice, I’d buy it! Come to Me will certainly appear in my list of top albums of 2026.

Tom Clarke for BMM

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