English acoustic guitarist C Joynes, a resident of Cambridge, has released a few self produced excellent CDRs, but here sees his first Bo’ Weavil release. Joynes uses a heavy thumb-led finger-picking technique that harks back to traditional country-blues and early ragtime, however, he uses this technique to explore alternative melodic traditions: the English folk-tune; North and West African music; elements of classical Indian music; proto-minimalist and impressionist musics from the European classical tradition. His approach to the recording and compositional process contains a subtle and unassuming experimentation, at times including collaged fragments, field recordings, processing, en-plein-air recordings, and cut-and-paste. The version of ‘Since I Lay My Burden Down’ incorporates variations on lyrics and vocal lines drawn from a different song entirely. He has a penchant for reworking over-familiar pieces and stripping them of their kitsch and cliché, presenting them afresh, such as with ‘Christmas Medley’, the arrangement of ‘A Night In Tunisia’, and the gospel-based ‘And When The Sun Begins To Shine’. Joynes’ music is instinctive, well-researched, placid, and evokes a certain simplicity and naiveté.
