Reviews

Artist:Keith James
Album: Can You Imagine
Label: Hurdy Gurdy
Tracks: 10+10
Website: https://www.keith-james.com

After being in the industry for over 40 years and playing upwards of 100 live shows a year, Keith remained in a rich vein of form pre pandemic with his prolific 'album a year' run taking in 2017's 'Tenderness Claws', 2018's career retrospective 'Captured - The Best Of Keith James' and 2019's 'Message From The Gods'. A major part of Keith's longevity is obviously down to his talent, boasting an enviable guitar technique, rich, husky voice and honed songwriting skills. However, of equal importance is his skill at marketing himself so as to remain relevant in an ever changing listening environment. Over the years he has become chief interpretor of the songs of Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen and John Martyn, expanding this into genre shows such as the Great American Songbook, then there's his creative associations with the likes of musician and producer Branwen Munn, and his passion for putting music to the prose of others, Maya Angelou, WH Auden, Pablo Neruda and Kate Tempest to name but a few.

Then with the advent of Covid 19, and like so so many others in the arts, Keith's livelihood was ripped away overnight and he talks of the 'darkest winter of early 2021, locked down alone in Brecon with more than 100 concert cancellations'. However, after putting out an appeal through his email newsletter hoping for funds just to survive, the response was so positive Keith was also able to invest in a digital home recording studio and start work on songs written in lockdown. This body of work expanded to co-writes with Dumfriesshire based artist Jenny Finch that were recorded at Circa 16 Studio with Dave Miller, and then long time collaborator Branwen Munn came on board to bring her unique talents to the proceedings.

Opening track 'Something I Thought I Understood' enters on ominous acoustic strum and the lines "Progress, well that's something I thought I understood. Faster will thrill me, slower will kill me" intoned with a later life Rick Rubin era Johnny Cash type stark gravitas, a side to Keith's voice not heard before but certainly most welcome. As the track stretches out, the percussive shakes, rattles and clanks drive it through on a backing track of distorted, eerie voices.

'Clean Lines' ambles through on a rumbling, atmospheric bass line and title track 'Can You Imagine?' round up this opening trio of Keith James written songs with lovely picked guitar and signature vocal, "Can you imagine? If you stare into a pool, there's no reflection. No earthly trace of you". Not wanting to over interpret this opening set of songs, but both musically and lyrically for me they conjure up images of isolation, loss and impermanence.

Track four 'Never Enough' is the first co-write with Jenny Finch and has another edgy acoustic intro with the provocative lyric "Tearing at the crust of fate, I dare you, I dare you. And eat all of life on a plate. Never enough, never enough" before the song opens out in altogether sweeter vocal territory, then the chirpily titled Keith original 'Chic a Boom' boasts a lovely acoustic lead line and gloriously panned shaker, and a delivery that sets this song in the Leonard Cohen 'lost sessions' department.

'Clarity Road' is a Jenny Finch solo write and sets itself out on a quietly intense, propulsive guitar part before Keith's 'Human Kindness' revisits the deep vocal timbre of the opening track with it's optimistic message that belies the delivery, "I'm buying into human kindness, Its alive and well on my street, And working beautifully as far as I can see".

The final three tracks are all Keith and Jenny collaborations, 'Zoom Girl' is positively playful, 'All Around' starts off with the bleakness of a dark Richard Thompson, but then both musically and lyrically becomes something of a 'call to arms' for the young, "All around, all around the children are leading. Showing the way for those yet to be born", then the courtly pacing of album closer 'Life In Black And White' brings the record to a close in suitably ambiguous fashion but with maybe more hope than not, "Just when my eyes were tired of the dark, I see shades of Indigo Blue. Indigo Blue".

Well it's hard to avoid cliches like a 'triumph of hope over adversity' and that sort of thing, but as we all know, often cliches are true!

Whatever the circumstances this record emerged from, it is yet another triumph of songwriting, collaboration and creativity for Keith James. As if that wasn't enough, there is a bonus disc of the album in purely unadorned, acoustic form, an embarrassment of riches indeed.

So, another year and 'Can You Imagine?' is predictably yet another fine album from Keith as his rich vein of form continues.

Paul Jackson

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