Jon Boden
Painted Lady
Soundpost Recordings

Jon Boden must never sleep. He records with Bellowhead, Spiers and Boden and plays with Eliza Carthy. This solo record has him singing and playing nearly everything. It's not exactly folk, not blues but a combination of the two.

The ghost of Tom Waits looms large in "Get a Little Something" all rough vocals and odd tempo. "Josephine" is a bright up-tempo song, Boden singing lustily of a lovely girl to a folkish backing. "Pocketful of Mud" digs into Waits' wardrobe of sonic tricks, dense guitars and distorted voices adding to the tension. Boden's clearly not just a folk singer or an acolyte of some master, he's got his own voice.

Boden's created strange, heady brew on this record and it's worth hearing.

Copyright © 2007 Anna Maria Stjärnell