Journals reviewed in Irish Music Magazine November 2019.
November 6, 2019 6:52 pm Comments Off on Journals reviewed in Irish Music Magazine November 2019.This well-produced album from English musician Luke Jackson has an impact from the start, with his strong, defined vocals emitting to the listener a big soul sound, which graduates as the album moves over the 12 tracks on Journals. His songs are crafted with a finesse to grab the attention of almost any potential audience, his vocals varnished with a pop style crossed with a blues, folk soul at its core.
There is the melancholy of Home, a song that will resonate with many musicians who spend a lot of time on the road, there’s the blues-rock road trip of Cherry Picker, and then there’s Aimee, which takes a journey down the by-ways of folk music.
Throughout, Jackson’s vocals drip with emotion, his heart invested in every word. On Baby Boomers, he invokes the spirit of Billy Bragg, in everything from pushing his accent, the sparse electric guitar strumming, to the hard-hitting realism in the lyrics [‘They put knives in the hands of children/tell them don’t go starting a war’] of this coming-of-age folk song. The one cover on the album is of Sandy Denny’s Who Knows Where the Time Goes. It’s an interesting choice, given that Jackson has been likened to Denny’s one time band mate Richard Thompson, who includes Who Knows… in his sets from time to time. A strong album with a lot of work and graft behind it, this is the sixth release from Jackson and it puts him on an upward trajectory in the world of folk singing.
Derek Copley
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