I was fortunate enough to catch Glenn Jones playing with Cul de Sac in support of Damo Suzuki many years ago and their freeform repetition was a perfect match for Damo’s mantra-like vocalising. The freedom and experimentation that Cul de Sac embodied is quite a contrast to Glenn’s solo guitar work, and really goes to show how varied and thoughtful he is as a performer.
Over the last fifteen years or so, he has released around a dozen solo and collaborative guitar albums that take the American primitive style and expand it through his own personal vision. Originally releasing through Olympia’s Strange Attractors label, more recently he has developed a relationship with Thrill Jockey and The Giant Who Ate Himself is his sixth for them. It finds him generally in six-string mode, but a few of the tracks have the shimmering shine of the twelve-string guitar. Apart from the odd bit of assistance from recording engineer Laura Baird, this is just Glenn and his guitar; but this album is great because it comes with a booklet that gives a little bit of an explanation for each song that allows the listener to help inhabit Glenn’s mindset, and to a certain extent the environment of the song.
Apparently, the album’s title is a reference to John Fahey, with whom Glenn shared a twenty-five-year friendship, and one of the pieces soundtracks a visit Glenn paid to old 78 collector Joe Bussard with the sadly deceased Jack Rose, one of his most obvious contemporaries. It is interesting to see how Glenn fits into this current pantheon of American guitarists, because he doesn’t have the almost wilful obscurantism of Fahey nor the dark intensity of Rose. What comes through from his playing for me is a sense of inclusion and of sheer humanity. This is guitar music for everybody where, regardless of the virtuosity (and he is one hell of a player), it still feels approachable.
Elsewhere across the album, there is a touch of Spanish folk in “The Was And The Is”, and there is a nod in the direction of ’90s Chicago in ‘A Different Kind Of Christmas Carol”, which brings to mind the likes of Rex and Pullman, those more complicated purveyors of extended American folk music. In fact, the notes to this track are really sweet, and if anything it and the notes best encapsulate Glenn’s approach to music in general. I can’t think of many other acoustic guitarists who would have a seven year-old child in the front row of a gig.
This is a delight from start to finish, and the range of emotional content and mood is second to none. The one slight deviation is the middle track, ‘River In The Sky”, which finds engineer Laura’s found sounds mixing in with Glenn’s brief desert slide, to evoke some expansive rhythm-less drift that would be a perfect break between sides one and two. According to the notes, this is something that, if given the opportunity, he would like to prepare a whole album of semi-ambient found-sound fun and games. I personally would love to hear that as well, but for the time being, just listening to this album is enough of a journey.Glenn Jones is a busy man, but I am really pleased he has found time to produce this thought-provoking and wonder-filled treat. Long may he continue.
-Mr Olivetti-
