Description
British born but has been based in Chicago for a couple of decades now, guitarist JAMES ELKINGTON – who has collaborated with everyone from RICHARD THOMPSON to JEFF TWEEDY to TORTOISE – recorded his sophomore album at WILCO’s Loft studio . As well as his recent production & arrangement work for the likes of STEVE GUNN, NAP EYES & JOAN SHELLEY. Casting glances back to British folk traditions as well as toward avant-garde horizons. The closest comparison I can make is with Bert Jansch. The insistently tumbling rhythms of album opener Nowhere Time certainly call to mind vintage Pentangle, with scattergun tossed restless wordscape and allusive meanings flitting by with the shifting time-signature. Nodding to inspiration from his own homeland with British folk songs, Elkington’s music has a timeless quality to it. It could be some recently unearthed treasure of the past or it could be completely new and contemporary. With Ever-Roving Eye, Elkington freely draws from everything on that spectrum, from ’60s psych-rock to rootsy twang and spare folk music. And that eye knows no bounds. The overall sound of the album is of course largely down to the personality of James himself, his impeccable, crisp guitar picking and often intensely characterful voice.
