Am I allowed to review old CDs?
When they're as good as this one, I don’t see why I shouldn't. If you want a copy there's a web link at the bottom and CAL WILLIAMS Jr. is his own boss. So if you get in touch I'm sure something can be arranged.
I was very enthusiastic about his recent (second) album on My Favourite Brunette Records, so when this debut album turned up I was a bit pleased. Like the more recent material it was recorded at Panda Studios in Robin Hood's Bay (on the Yorkshire coast north of Whitby).
Where that second album is adventurous and leaning out towards a jazz/folk sound, this first has a more intimate solo feel. The songs are gentle and strong, like Sylvia Plath's mushrooms – pushing their soft intimate way through to any welcoming surface.
The delicate guitar, the light voice and some deft percussion (with touches of violin, viola and flute) ring a careful round of changes. There are eleven original songs. They start with the bottleneck guitar of "Soezlig" and a blues undertow pulls through many other songs too, even when the more formal elements of flattened thirds and sevenths are not leading. A comparison with RY COODER'S early stuff isn’t out of order. It’s the hardest edged song on the album, and well-placed as an opening fanfare.
After that "My Bluest Thing" is a gorgeous tune that stands on hushed tip toe to break into the delicate heart and warm bed of some special person. "Bird" swings in a more sophisticated way, but keeps the quiet romantic mood. "Ocean Springs" is in a minor key with a viola part. This is more restless and tentative, a deft change of mood, suddenly picking up into a very BERT JANSCH kind of instrumental section.
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"River " has a curious introduction that nudges the adventurous spirit a little further in a jazz direction, with a more insistent percussion and some tricksy harmonics and descending runs of notes. "The Forest" reverts to something more recognisably American folk song. "Sutcliffe's Blues" gets that slide out again and takes us wandering off to the Delta for a nostalgic skip round the delapidatged porch. It has a creaky lilt that works nicely against the mournful tendency of the slide guiar sound.
"For The Summer" has a light hint of the medieval intros, perfect for a chilled song of regretful longing. "Lovesongs From The Midnight Sea" takes the mood into a more sombre place, with the blues coming out of something a little more Flamenco than Delta. "The Weaver" and "Whither Will" close a very accomplished album with more quality guitar playing and dextrous songs of love that could be lost.
If Cal Williams Jnr. settles near you sometime (the CD came via France, but he was heading for South Australia) you owe it to your hopeful self (and to your love of well played guitar songs) to go and hear him play.
www.calwilliams.co.uk
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