Nic Jones - Penguin Eggs

Returned

Mentioning in the previous post Nic Jones and his duet with Kate Rusby, I returned today to his very highly regarded 1980 album Penguin Eggs. It is impossible when thinking of Jones not to be reminded that it was 30 years ago in 1982 when he was severely injured in a head-on traffic accident, ending for most of this time his musical career which had reached a significant height with that album. It is easy to find more information on the crash and its consequences if you wish. Because of that sudden cessation in his work – which obviously and worse might so easily have included his life – Nic Jones has gained significant respect for his work to that date and empathy for his endurance through having to be surgically rebuilt. 

I will quickly state that he has returned to some understandably tentative live performances - the first in 2010 after 28 years – and, as with the Rusby album, recording. But because of the crash and injuries, Jones and his family have struggled financially for most of their life, and this has been compounded by the fact – which I don’t fully understand – that the earning rights to his recordings have never been handed over to the Jones family. I mention because I have today ordered the 2006 release of live recordings titled Game Set Match and done so from his web site: http://www.nicjones.net/home  If ordering his music from this site, the money goes to Jones, rather than to those who don’t even pay taxes!

But to the album: the opening track Candalee-I-O begins with Jones’ performing a distinctive guitar pick’n’slap, a style that John Martyn also used so effectively. Jones’ voice here and throughout has a deeper tone compared with his first release in 1970, Ballads and Songs. This ‘last’ album is informed by traditional folk music in style and playing [classic accordion and percussion], all excellent, but fifth track Courting Is A Pleasure is, for me, Jones at his beautiful best - just guitar, vocal and then recorder: the guitar work having some delicate rhythmic changes and chord sequences. Seventh Planxty Davis exemplifies his guitar brilliance, and the album finishes on Farewell To The Gold with a pleasingly traditional choral sing-along.

I have been listening to samples from the three live recordings that Jones’ wife Julie has diligently collected over the years and released – In Search of Nic Jones, Unearthed, Game Set Match – and Jones’ vocal live is graced with a tremolo that I look forward to hearing in full when I receive today’s purchase.