Description
The Wilko Johnson revival began with his characterful turn in Oil City Confidential, the 2009 documentary about Dr Feelgood. His resilience and good humour in the face of terminal cancer sealed his place in the nation’s affections. Going Back Home features versions of some of Johnson’s Feelgood-era songs as well as later Wilko faves, and his look-Ma-no-plectrum guitar chops are blistering throughout. Roger Daltrey, untethered from the Who, lets rip. His voice was always a blunt instrument, but age has weathered it to a fearsome growl. Going Back Home is issued on Chess – home to Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. But this is no reverent homage to the blues masters. Unless you count a rambunctious cover of Bob Dylan’s Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window – there are no surprises: it’s meat-and-potatoes British R&B, but done with such love and joie de vivre, we can almost forgive them for failing to call their album Roger Wilko.
