“There’s something raw and real about hearing Tessa Souter sing,” wrote John Payne in the LA Weekly. “Basically a self-taught musician, she is not afraid to take big risks in her performances with surprising takes on often just as surprisingly un-standard repertoire, from jazz arrangements of ‘Eleanor Rigby, Cream’s ‘White Room’ and Nick Drake’s ‘River Man’ to covers of Brazilian compositions by Milton Nascimento and Dori Caymmi, originals such as her own mesmerizing ‘Usha’s Wedding,’ superb arrangements of classical stuff by Chopin, Beethoven, Debussy and others, and modern jazz tunes by Kenny Barron and Wayne Shorter, who gave her not only permission to record her lyric to ‘Ana Maria’ but shared writing. [NB: Kurt Elling recorded it, with additional lyrics by Elling, on his Grammy-nominated album, Wildflowers Volume 1.] It’s the sound of an artist doing things her own way.”