Joe Wilkes

It isn’t often that an album comes along that has as many strong and individual characteristics as this one but that remains incredibly difficult to describe.
I can say that I have listened to it, literally, twenty times and got a different opinion about his strengths every time.

He is a singer/songwriter – at times he sounds a little like James Taylor and at others he has a lot of the questioning descriptiveness of Nick Drake – and he is an excellent guitarist with resonances of John Martyn or Bert Jansch in his finger-picking and complex patterns

The opening track ‘Telescope’ sees his playing set against a string quartet, using the strings for both texture and melody while his playing has a haunting reflectiveness and a flamenco feel – the end result is both disquieting and exhilarating while the closing chord on the organ leaves the track brilliantly somehow unfinished.
The contrast with ‘Changing The Letters’ that follows is remarkable as he moves into a more troubadour sort of mode – very James Taylor – but again with backing from woodwind and strings that makes the music more deep and complex than you might initially expect.
The organ chord that leaves ‘Telescope’ hanging begins ‘Making My River Flow’ and bookends the material between and it all shows a Dylanesque sense of Puckishness – never leave the listener comfortable or at ease – while it is a terrific track in its own right with a dense organ and tootling sax giving an extra dimension to the music.
The title track is simply brilliant – somehow linking all the previous elements into a wondrous and complex set of elements within the song.
His skills as a wordsmith are delightful – “You made me fall off my horse like a Don Quixote so I picked up my lance and gave it my best shot” - and he obviously is well read and has listened to a lot of music but he doesn’t come over as nerdy or passionless, quite the opposite, this is a superb album if you are prepared for something that will tax your brain and take you places you did not expect.