Tuesday 31 January 2012

Jimmy Bowskill - Back Number

Freely Nostalgic

I mentioned this young guitarist and singer early in the youth of this blog - appropriately, as Bowskill was a child rock prodigy, discovered at aged ten busking, apparently, Robert Johnson blues, with a first album at 12 and gaining a Canadian Juno Award music nomination at 14, the youngest ever.

Five albums later with this release, he is 21 and continues to rock in an aged, nostalgic manner: what I mean, of course, in the classic rock guitarist/rock trio manner. This is another one of those totally authentic offerings in the thread of band The Answer or fellow rock guitar archivist and significant contemporary precursor Joe Bonamassa. It's not new but it sure is real. In that respect there's little to articulate other than reiterate its rock credentials, both in the virtuosity of the guitar playing and the maturing vocal. Two songs will suffice as apt promotion and echo: Salty Dog which seems mapped precisely across the beat and riff of Free's Mr Big [and Paul Rodgers is allegedly a good friend] and Seasons Change which as a rock ballad displays the vocal confidence - more Terry Reid than Roger Plant in its tone, but both invoked as a compliment.


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