Even when major an-album-a-year bands and singers are rare, the 17 years since Jennifer Warnes’ last record, “The Well,” are far too lengthy an interval, making her return that much sweeter.
Still further back is her career peak — her tremendous 1987 collection of Leonard Cohen songs, “Famous Blue Raincoat” — and her soundtrack hits from “Norma Rae,” “An Officer and a Gentleman” and “Dirty Dancing.”
There are no Cohen compositions on “Another Time, Another Place,” but Warnes and producer-bassist Roscoe Beck have found plenty of songs worth their attention and talent, mostly covers written or made famous by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Pearl Jam, Elvis Presley, Mickey Newbury and Dire Straits.
The opening track, Eddie Vedder’s “Just Breathe,” is imbued with a dose of elegance both in Warnes’ vocals and in the arrangement, which chooses strings and a French horn to layer the emotional heft without mawkishness. Presley recorded Lonnie Johnson’s “Tomorrow Night” while at Sun Records and Warnes preserves its simplicity and aching uncertainty.