new guitarists : review page : Glenn Jones

Strange Attractors Glenn Jones : This is the wind that blows it out (US,2004)***°°

Glenn Jones, the second new guitarist I’d like to review on these pages, is someone who participated before with his group, Cul De Sac. His solo work gives full focus on his talents. Glenn Jones is a guitarist with more emphasis on technical skills and as much on melody on his fingerpicking.

The title track “This is the wind that blows it out” is, if I hear and know it well enough, is more clearly developed from American guitar traditions, with some slide guitar experimentation. “Sphinx unto curious men” is a moving, brilliant guitar fingerpicking track, of over 9 minutes, with various interwoven ideas, and with beautiful melodic evolutions, themes and thematical breaks. Also “Friday Nights With” has incredible early Kottke like melodic developments. “Fahey car” has much more fingerpicking with slide guitar, a kind of melodic “happy” blues. Glenn Jones (with Cul De Sac) cooperated with John Fahey before, in 1997, on another release called “The Epiphany Of Glenn Jones”. Also the next track, “The Doll Hospital” clearly has such Fahey influences. A brilliant piece if you ask me ! Next title also appeared on the Jack Rose album, “Linden Avenue Stomp”. It is actually a duet with Jack Rose, with much more traditional inspirations. Then the style changes again . “Nora’s Leather Jacket” has a very fast fingerpicking style. No idea what caused the inspiration for this, but it has a bit more of a nervous and loaded (rhythmical) style. Also “One Jack Rose (That I mean)” seems also to be a variation on something I cannot directly recall. Perhaps this is an example of the/a ragtime style brought over to this century (reference to the Jack Rose review above). Also this track is, partly, more rhythmically loaded, compared to the earliest tracks, which sounds more of a harmonious blend of melody and rhythm. Talented !

Homepage : http://www.billtmiller.com/glennjones/

Info on this release : http://www.strange-attractors.com/catalog/saah024.html

Other review of this album : http://www.scaruffi.com/vol5/culdesac.html#thi

Another release by Glenn Jones (Cul De Sac) with John Fahey:

http://www.johnfahey.com/pages/gj.html & http://www.johnfahey.com/pages/epiphany.html

& http://www.fastnbulbous.com/culdesac.htm & http://www.theonionavclub.com/review.php?review_id=1679

& http://www.silvergirl.com/ModReviewsF.html

Soundfiles : http://www.mp3.com/albums/264165/summary.html

PS. I must admit that unfortunately I never heard any full album of Cul De Sac yet.

Cul de Sac info : http://www.culdesac.org/

A few Cul De Sac soundfiles : http://www.epitonic.com/artists/culdesac.html

Glenn Jones's 2007 album reviewed next->

Strange Attractors

Glenn Jones : Against which sea continually beats

-solos for 6 & 12 string guitar- (US,2007)****'

It’s been sometime now since we heard of another Glenn Jones album. In the booklet of this album you can find some explanation of which different guitars Glenn Jones uses (in fingerpicking and slide guitar technique), which tunings he uses, and about the use of partial capos (1/2 and 2/3rd), which make a wider range of picking notes possible. Also his musical inspirations are thoroughly explained with each track (inspired by a children book, an Appalachian guitar piece, a wedding-track commission, and a Steve Burton, John Fahey and a Bill Muller tribute,..).

The album is more consistent in style compared to the previous album, and shows controlled and inspired perspectives over the whole line. Like Glenn Jones always tends to be, all tracks are melodious, and sound light and fresh, even when in minor, with a unique style which is always somehow descriptive, just here and there are revealing thoughtful inspirations on Appalachian / ragtime / blues / Fahey inspirations, inspired from a meditative distance. Recommended.

Audio : "David And The Phoenix", "Little Dog's Day"

Homepage with audio : http://www.myspace.com/glennjonesguitar

Label info : http://www.strange-attractors.com/catalog/saah046.html

Other reviews : http://www.leftofthedialmag.com/?p=236

& http://www.thephoenix.com/article_ektid32646.aspx

Next album->

Strange Attractors

Glenn Jones : Barbecue Bob in Fishtown (US,2009)****°

Despite enthusiasm for the previous works of Glenn Jones this new one really succeeded to surprise me. The guitar style and approach matured further. The depth of his visions are guided by some explanations of his inspirations in the booklet, explaining from which examples he developed his mastery.

The main title is played on a 5-string banjo, sounding closer in sound to the guitar. Glenn Jones expresses his greatfulness to Paul Metzger who showed him a vision for contemporary banjo playing while remaining in respect to some old masters (Hobart Smith, Roscue Holcomb, George Stavis 1969 LP and Bill Faier’s 1973 LP), explaining also how he tried making guitar sound more banjo like by replacing the low E string by a high E while this still couldn’t do it. In improvising and developing new tunes Glen Jones discovered twice that he accidentally reused some old tunes, like on the second track with “Jeux interdits” from Narsisco Yepes, a known piece for guitar students in Europe, but this came up so spontaneously it still is something new and entirely his. Also the fourth track reused something of Robbie Basho’s “Redwood Ramble”, but instead of checking the source better on the moment of realisation, he developed this into something which remained completely his own, a spontaneous “collaboration” as he called it, with a happy open conclusion. One track is dedicated to Wendy Ritger’s girlish days where he inspired Glenn Jones, a spontaneous descriptive mood around older tunes melancholy with some nostalgia inflicted by the memory. Very special is the transcriptive inspiration from Swiss writer Robert Walser who wrote ultra short stories, showing a very original way of restricted guitar melody with lots of deeper colourful contents of sonic plots and detail. Also the 8th track is very rich in movements. It is a piece dedicated to Robbie Basho and used his sort of rich chords of harmonies, slow developments outs of its majestic range of hidden harmonies, makes changes then in themes. An extremely moody piece, rich in emotion. Recommended, a perfect album, with some memorable performances.

Label info : http://strange-attractors.com/catalog/saah056.html

Description on http://www.insound.com/... & http://www.clear-spot.nl/...

Info & audio : http://www.myspace.com/glennjonesguitar

Other review : http://www.iodamarketing.com/2009/08/review-glenn-jones/

Strange Atractors House Jack Rose & Glenn Jones : The Things that we used to do

-solos and duets- -DVD- (US,rec.2007-2009,pub.2010)****°

Two and a half hours of Jack Rose & Glenn Jones ! The DVD was already in its final stages of production when Jack Rose suddenly unexpectedly died of a heart attack, which is weird leaving these two finished two projects (an album and a DVD).

With good camera work giving more a live impression than seeing someone playing live (rarely achieved !) because of the many close-ups (where you can see the sweat pearls on Jack Rose face, or the worn out guitar and how the music is played with a nice photography) with its moving focus this makes the experience of the tracks more real than I had before with a CD only, and like an intimate experience. Tiny camera work shots in between the tracks are a good idea to have them included and give the recording something real instead of just a technical studio document.

The DVD is in six sections. 2 tracks in duet, 9 tracks of Jack Rose, 6 of Glenn Jones, and three more tracks of each during a live concert, followed by an over half hour interview by Byron Coley.

The bluesy folk slide & picking guitar tracks by Jack Rose sound somewhat similar, and because there’s not made real contact with the camera, just in time before my attention flooded, Glen Jones took over for the next session. This Glenn Jones session is a very intense, deep and at times almost hypnotic-meditative concentration, for which you could close your eyes at times just occasionally looking at the same concentrations in detail, in fingers or posture of Glenn Jones. Then he suddenly switches to banjo.

Also for the live recording, very short faded in and out flashes of the settings were filmed (not longer than necessary), which helps to imagine being there involved with the real memorable moment, the live recording. Both sessions are also very intimate, quiet and introspective and meditative, with a unique atmosphere, with the first track fitting perfectly with Glenn Jones’s approach, followed by two blues pickings.

The spontaneously done interview has the different communicative part focused on both players relationship in music, their main interests and heroes (Robbie Basho and John Fahey for instance), and what they did solo and together, and how they got involved into acoustic guitar playing.

This DVD album I think will get some historical significance and importance later.

Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/...

Label info : http://www.strange-attractors.com/catalog/saah058.html

Other descriptions on http://www.waysidemusic.com/... & http://www.midheaven.com/...

& http://www.conspiracyrecords.com/...

Other review on http://manmaderecords.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/jackroseglennjones/

Separate Jack Rose page on next page->