Coruja Jones - Songs For Winter (Live At Yellow Arch Studios) (self-released)

In a world, a pop and rock world, at least, where guitars are thrashed and spanked and pummelled and used to fire off rudimentary power chords, and where those who abuse these instruments in such a way are put on pedestals and regarded as musical icons, it is nice to be reminded of the deftness and delicacy to which the instrument can, and indeed should, be turned. I get it; we are not celebrating those people’s technical prowess as much as their song crafting and overall concepts, their persona and star qualities, but shouldn’t we be lauding those who can both write great songs and who really understand their instrument? Coruja Jones can do both. He writes great songs and plays beautifully—a double whammy.

“Songs For Winter (Live At Yellow Arch Studios)” proves that. Although ostensibly a solo act, he is aided and abetted by guitarist Jake Stentiford and the result is the most gorgeous intertwining of acoustic guitars you will have heard in a long time. There is something of Damien Rice about the song, he being my benchmark for such an understated, spacious, and dreamlike folk style, and it is fair to say that the song passes that test with flying colors. Not that songs should feel the need to fight it out against each other, but as a reference point, it does speak volumes, and I will say that if you like the aforementioned Irishman, you will love what is going on here.

Space is the name of the game, and it is Jones’s ability to write songs that let the light in, that allow enough air for everything to breathe, that provide atmosphere and anticipation, and many other more-than-the-sum-of-their-parts sonics to pool and percolate in the cracks between note and lyric that is the difference between just another good indie folk song and a truly great one.

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