If there’s ever a Jimmy Gnecco biopic and his 40 years to date would already make for compelling viewing he’ll surely be portrayed on the streets of his native New Jersey as “Jimmy the Voice,” so remarkable is the emotionally elastic sound emanating from his incongruously slight frame. Having fronted perennial big-name opening act Ours for 20 years, Gnecco released his stripped-down solo debut, The Heart, in 2010. That album was followed a year later by a full-band version of the similarly titled The Heart: X Edition. Whatever the instrumental accompaniment, delicately acoustic or bombastically electric, it’s the man’s Jeff Buckleyesque, compellingly textured murmurs and falsetto-flecked, visceral howl that lend even the most ambiguous of lyrics a lived-in sense of import, which continues to command cult-level reverence.
