GLENN JONES - Against Which The Sea Continually Beats

In the privileged position of someone who has collaborated with John Fahey – on the remarkable "The Epiphany Of Glenn Jones" (Thirsty Ear, 1997) – and who personally knew Robbie Basho several years before his untimely death, Glenn Jones can rightfully be considered more than a mere epigone of the Takoma School. Though a worthy heir to those teachings, and an avowed continuer of that tradition, the leader of Cul De Sac ranges with real personality across a compositional spectrum that reveals his undoubted gift for reworking the material, that is, his ability to move effortlessly between the two stylistic poles – Bashoian and Faheyan, to be precise – despite the rigid dictates of a genre that has, after all, undergone few innovations over the years.

"Against Which The Sea Continually Beats", a new work on Strange Attractors following the promising "This is the Wind that Blows it Out" and the not entirely successful "Abhayamudra" – made alongside Damo Suzuki – adds to the roster a now ongoing celebration, which in Jones's case becomes heartfelt gratitude, a tribute to memories now settled and finally distilled, especially in these last few years. Recorded by Anthony Esposito at Digital Studios on Martha's Vineyard (the small Massachusetts island) in late September 2006, the album seems to have benefited from the tranquility of the place, bringing with it a kind of bucolic pantheism that comes through even in its most agitated moments, without ever lapsing into the sort of syrupy epigraph-mongering that so often afflicts productions of this kind.

So, following the evolution of the tracks, aided perhaps by the small but meticulous notes recounting their genesis, which you'll find in the hefty booklet, one senses how this artistic act is, more than ever, an act of communication, lucidly free of any overburdening with technical-compositional concerns; this is true of "The Teething Necklace (For John Fahey)", where the tribute turns out to be emotional rather than stylistic, as in "Heartbrek Hill", hushed yet intense, a moving remembrance of a departed friend, or in "Cady", a sweet 12-string poem dedicated to his granddaughter. Melancholy also pervades the country-blues roughness of the opening "Island", of "Richard Nixon Orchid" and of the closing "Island 2", where one can also glimpse the Fahey of "Womblife" jamming with Blind Willie Johnson.

Perceptual shifts, desert ablutions, memories that never fully rest – this is what "Against Which The Sea Continually Beats" is about.

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04/04/2007