Al Jones - All My Friends Are Back Again: The Anthology

Collection of lost treasures… but don’t call him ‘folk’

“This record is not to be classified as rock, folk or progressive, nor is Al Jones to be classified as a singer-songwriter/composerguitarist…” So spake the original sleevenotes to Jonesville, Al Jones’s 1973 album on the Village Thing label. So obscure it became a cult, it rides again here in partnership with his 1969 Parlophone album, Alun Ashworth- Jones, from when he was expected to make it as the new Al Stewart or Roy Harper, or whoever was hot at the time. One trait leaping out of this 50-track set (with the usual array of alternative versions, previously unreleased tracks and live recordings) is that Al Jones didn’t take himself, or much else, too seriously. That may be why he gets called “idiosyncratic” and disappeared to Cornwall to watch boats when stardom beckoned.

It helps make this endearingly ramshackle, with some fabulous guitar work and an unusually cheery approach to the blues. Jones’ own songwriting has its moments, too (there’s a wonderful song called Jeffrey Don’t You Touch), if far too wayward and oddball for the mainstream. When you hear his entertainingly enthusiastic solo assaults on That’ll Be The Day, Sheila and Blue Suede Shoes, you realise he’s a rock singer trapped in a folk singer’s clothes.  

Castle | CMEDD 1403 (2-CD)

Reviewed by Colin Irwin
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