This Is the Wind That Blows It Out

Album Review

The debut acoustic guitar album from Cul de Sac's Glenn Jones is extremely reminiscent of John Fahey — unsurprisingly so, given Jones' long association with Fahey as a fan and eventually, with Cul de Sac, a collaborator (on the album The Epiphany of Glenn Jones). These steel-string guitar instrumentals, like those of Fahey's, have a fluid, ever-shifting feel, very much in the Americana folk style, though often with a somewhat darker and more melancholic tone. They also contain hints of blues and gospel without ever straying too far into those genres. If this suffers in any way by a comparison with Takoma Records' releases of bygone days from Fahey and fellow instrumental guitar virtuosos Peter Lang, Robbie Basho, and Leo Kottke, it's that it doesn't have the feel of breaking new ground. It's almost something of a tribute record to the music those kind of guitarists made, rather than an identifiably individual statement, though the densely jangling gentleness of "Nora's Leather Jacket" reaches out toward something more idiosyncratic. Still, it's abundant in both reverent affection for genre-blending, folk-based American acoustic guitar eclecticism and, just as crucially, considerable instrumental skill on the part of Jones himself. To be technical about things, not all of these eight tracks are Jones' solo performances: "Linden Avenue Stomp" is a duet with Jack Rose of Pelt.