Jane Thomason - September Road

by Malcolm Carter

published: 14 / 11 / 2014

Label: Longshore
Format: CD

Melancholic but captivating folk from singer-songwriter Jane Thomason, that has drawn her well-deserved comparisons with Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell and John Martyn

Review

For those of us who are old enough to have appreciated the work of Nick Drake from the beginning and not jumped on the bandwagon years after he passed, to read that a new artist is being compared to Drake can have the opposite effect to the one intended. When you then go on to discover that no less than Joni Mitchell and John Martyn have also been cited then you start to feel a little sorry for Jane Thomason. How can the unknown Thomason be compared to such talents? Easily actually. With expectations low because the thoughts were already planted that no one can equal those exceptional artists, especially with a debut album, the opening few seconds come as something of a shock. Thomason’s debut opens with ‘Tonight’; the strummed guitar that gently, almost unexpectedly, creeps up on the listener immediately captures the attention. There is an almost unique sound to Thomason’s guitar playing that demands your attention. Then that voice glides in. And you surrender and have to admit that all those comparisons not only ring true but are well deserved. But for all the Drake/Mitchell/Martyn touches there is something else there…something almost indescribable. There’s an aura not only in Thomason’s voice (which is Mitchell-like but more immediately accessible; it’s a love at first listen voice) but also in her guitar playing. Right here I have to admit that facts are a little sketchy, I’m uncertain if Thomason is responsible for the guitar on these ten songs, but if she is then her playing matches the beauty in her vocals. What we do know is that Thomason started playing piano and writing songs at the age of four, before taking up the violin at the ripe old age of six. Despite this obvious musical talent, Thomason didn’t make it her main vision for some years; she wrote for theatre and engaged in creating performance art works for which she also composed some music. Thomason didn’t make her first musical live performance until 2012, but in the space of the following two years she has been performing at festivals and venues in the UK as well as regularly making appearances on live radio. Now comes the release of ‘September Road’, a collection of ten original songs that display what a talented musician Jane Thomason is. There’s a melancholy feel about ‘September Road’, but it’s far from a difficult experience. While it’s not the type of record, you’d want to play on a Friday or Saturday night it will certainly carve out a special place in your listening hours. It’s not often that the word fascinating comes to mind while listening to an album, but there is something about the way Thomason’s voice works with her distinctive guitar playing that makes the listener stop what they are doing and concentrate on what Thomason is doing. It is really quite unlike any other music that is currently being made (that has made a journey this way at least) while still being instantly attractive. The main worry was that with Thomason’s unique vocal stylings and equally distinctive guitar playing that all the songs would melt into one, albeit beautiful, song. This is not so, as songs such as ‘Anon’ and ‘Red Man In The Sky’ have Thomason pulling sounds from her guitar that you wouldn’t think possible, and her vocals on the latter are all you need to hear to agree that Thomason has her own vocal style, one that it’s impossible not to be drawn to. Although it will be interesting to hear where Thomason goes from here, the songs on this debut, although basically just voice and guitar, hold many surprises and will keep the listener captured for hours. Already they have that timeless quality about them; while the album really could have been made any time in the last five decades there is also a contemporary feel enveloping the songs. Taking a journey along Thomason’s ‘September Road’ is akin to taking a mystery tour; you never know what’s around the next corner. An album we can recommend wholeheartedly.