After a half century of life experience, this is Phil Jones’ first solo album. Prior to this he was one part of Americana trio from East Sussex called Hatful of Rain. ‘St Peter’s Thumb’ is released on his own record label which is based in Shoreham-By-Sea.
The eight socially aware but emotionally detached songs take us from New Homes to Idle Women. The former uses bitter irony to lament how the so-called land of plenty excludes those on lower incomes. The second pays tribute to the not so idle women who worked hard on canal boats in Britain during the second World War.
The title track is a nine minute story song of a fisherman who realises that ”the sea and courting do not mix” but still manages to rekindle an old flame. Improperly Located is about a man estranged from his children
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In songs like these, Jones uses colloquial language with no obvious pretensions towards poetry or profundity. As a result, any serious intent is handled with bittersweet objectivity or treated with a degree of levity. Similarly, in Hurt People, Hurt People, the warning message is undermined by a jazzy swing arrangement with a bopshoowaddy chorus.
Jones mocks nostalgia in When Times Were Hard and Things Were Better but his songs do not put forward the kind of contemporary wisdom that might have given them greater resonance.
Phil Jones’ website
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