Review: C Joynes

C Joynes - Congo (Bo’ Weavil Recordings)
C Joynes is a finger-pick guitar player from Cambridge. Following in the footsteps of 2009’s “Revenants, Prodigies & the Restless Dead” he continues to engage the use of antique, obscure and homemade instruments, experimental recording techniques and occasional playing of a few others to explore melodies and music of variable origin.

His style is a collision of an early blues tradition with medieval folk, tribalism, metaphysics and the enlightening, meditative power of the drone. The tunes range from the Celtic paganism of “Stout Mr. Jemmy Hurst” and the pastoral bluegrass of “The Linden Tree” to the complex African polyrhythm of “The Running Board (Thanet to Dogon)” and Raga re-interpretations, with “World of Kobu” being based on parts of Ravi Shankar’s soundtrack to Satyajit Ray’s “The World of Abu”.

Furthermore the Appalachian, banjo led “Joseph in the Sea of Corn” and the dark, drawn and world weary “And the Moon was Full and Round” are ancient and atmospheric whilst “Crows on the Sandpile No. 1” vies ragtime blues against reverberating psychedelic organ to mesmeric effect. All in all, another commendable outing from Joynes.
www.myspace.com/cjoynes
www.boweavilrecordings.com
Willsk