Glenn Jones

 

Glenn Jones
plus special guest Directorsound

‘…a unique voice working in the decades-long tradition of American Primitivism … expressive playing and technical skill … a remarkable storyteller, and his songs reflect that talent.’ Thrill Jockey

Glenn Jones is a unique voice working in the decades-long tradition of American Primitivism. What sets him apart from the many devotees to this style is the combination of expressive playing and technical skill, most significantly his inventive use of alternate tunings and partial capos. As anyone knows who has seen him perform, Glenn is a remarkable storyteller, and his songs reflect that talent. The songs on Glenn’s latest, My Garden State, are evocative and redolent, and serve as a testament to Glenn’s talent for conveying a wide array of emotions, many times in one song, without saying a word.

My Garden State was written in the New Jersey home where Glenn’s family moved in 1966, while he was caring for his mother who suffers from Alzheimer’s. The songs and sounds on the album are reflective, but never dour or sad. My Garden State was recorded by Laura Baird in Allentown, NJ.

In 2004 Jones released his first album of acoustic six- and 12-string guitar instrumentals, This Is the Wind That Blows It Out, and set out on a month-long tour of Europe and the UK with guitarist extraordinaire, Jack Rose.

Against Which the Sea Continually Beats followed in 2007. Recorded on Martha’s Vineyard, the album runs the gamut from the Delta to Appalachia, from bastard classical to cinematic soundscapes. Graceful, subtle, resonating with confidence and power, the album is seen as a significant addition to the “guitar soli” canon.

A third solo release, Barbecue Bob in Fishtown, which found Jones focused on the 12-string guitar and introduced the banjo to his arsenal, was selected by Wire magazine as one of the best 50 albums of 2009.

Jones has performed with and written extensively about the leading lights of the American Primitive guitar style, John Fahey and Robbie Basho. Longstanding friendship with both artists and first-hand knowledge of their work inform his writing, which includes incisive liner notes for five Fahey albums. Jones produced Fahey’s posthumously issued 1968 live album, The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick (Water) as well as a 1980 live recording by Robbie Basho, Bonn Ist Supreme (Bo’ Weavil).

Jones has also performed with Peter Lang, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Cian Nugent, James Blackshaw, Paul Metzger, Peter Walker, Meg Baird, Harris Newman, Sean Smith, MV+EE, Dredd Foole, Tom Carter and many others, and has also recently finished an album with drummer Chris Corsano and monologist David Greenberger of The Duplex Planet.

Directorsound is the recording and performance alias of Nicholas Palmer, and was last in the Manchester area for a stunning performance supporting James Blackshaw at Sacred Trinity last May. His new album, I Hunt Alone, was recently released on Second Language records, and was inspired by a holiday to Transylvania. Featuring an all acoustic instrument line up augmented by field recordings from the trip, I Hunt Alone is “a cohesive, narrative-driven folk horror symphony.”

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