By: Mike Madavi
Artist: Glenn Jones
Title: Barbecue Bob in Fishtown
Label: Strange Attractors Audio House
Genre: Folk : Alternative
Release Date: 9/1/09
UPC: 789856305629
Territory: World

The Boston Globe claims Glen Jones is “The best guitarist you never heard of,” and we couldn’t agree more; the fingerpicking wonder has made a name for himself as one of the finest steel string players around. Aside from being seduced by punk in its latter-70’s heyday and brandishing the electric for a large portion of his career (including 20 years as a founding member of post-rock instrumentalists Cul de Sac), it was the acoustic steel-string and the seemingly multi-directional genres born from Takoma Park, Maryland’s folk breeding ground that informed much of Jones’ early musical vision.

The album’s title has an interesting back story that also reveals part of Glen’s compositional process. Fishtown is the part of Philadelphia where Jack Rose, a younger player who Glen met in 2003 at a Folk Festival in Western Massachusetts, lives. Glen instantly understood what the young player was doing with his unique, regional style and also recognized similar influences by the playing of John Fahey and Robbie Basho. Barbeque Bob was one of the great Atlanta 12 string players who Glen admires, so he had this idea about him bringing his Atlanta 12 string style to Fishtown to combine the two regional styles. Fahey and Basho were mentors to Glen in earlier days and he basically has mastered what the two taught him and carries on today as a living biography of their lives and unique playing styles. With two gorgeous, critically-acclaimed solo albums under his belt, Jones is widely and justly recognized as one of the major voices of the international wave of acoustic steel string players that seemingly crested in the wake of Fahey’s death.

The resulting album, his third release, Barbeque Bob in Fishtown, showcases only the finest in composition and steel string proficiency. Glen is also one of the pioneers of partial capo use, electing to use the neck clamp which changes the pitch of open strings on only a limited number of strings, as opposed to the traditional full six. Thus, he accomplishes unique tunings which lend themselves to compositions of unheard structure and awe. Songs like “David and the Phoenix” (named after and inspired by Glen’s favorite childhood book) are beautiful, cinematic pieces that summons complex, interwoven emotions to create a unique and dazzling pattern. This goes beyond simple fingerpicking patterns, he’s playing complex bass and rhythm lines on the capo’ed strings (which are thus in a separate pitch) and creating elaborate harmonies and melodies on the higher three strings. That all may sound too technical for a non-guitarist, but trust me, the end result will dazzle you all the same. These are at the most fundamental level unique and beautiful instrumental pieces that spawn from a style of guitar playing that is increasing rare to encounter.

Here’s a great recording of Glen playing “David and the Phoenix,” dig it: