Wilson’s return to familiar Waters
As guitarist in roger Waters’ touring band, Jonathan Wilson has been the former Pink Floyd singer and bassist’s right-hand man for three years.
He has accompanied the rock legend around the world, acting as musical director and singing David gilmour’s parts on Floyd material.
His own career took a back seat while he was on Waters’ us + them tour, but the North Carolina singer is now picking up the threads again — and it’s the homesickness he experienced while touring that has provided the spark for his fourth solo album.
Wilson, 45, has lived in California for the past 15 years, having moved to Laurel Canyon because he was a fan of the confessional folkrock famously associated with the area.
But Dixie Blur finds him reaching back further to the sounds he loved while growing up in the Deep south. Made in Nashville with a team of crack local session musicians, it’s a record in thrall to vintage country and bluegrass.
Wilson called it Dixie Blur because the title suggests a mixture of southern influences and modern textures, although it’s the former that dominate, with twangy guitars, cajun fiddle and pedal steel prominent, and everything recorded live with few overdubs.
in an echo of Bruce springsteen’s Western stars, his elegant songs look to Harry Nilsson and Jimmy Webb, but Wilson’s thoughtful lyrics and rich melodies steer away from pastiche. if his previous album, rare Birds, was a classic break-up LP, Dixie Blur, although rueful in places, is more upbeat.
Powered by jangling guitars and Mark O’Connor’s fiddle, in Heaven Making Love is a rousing love song, and El Camino real a lively hoe-down. so alive is full of the joys of new love, while Oh girl is a languid ballad that looks back on a rendezvous with a former lover outside a New York subway.
the nostalgia that fuelled Wilson’s creative fire is most apparent on ’69 Corvette, a touching reflection on the importance of home. ‘i still think of Carolina sometimes, i miss my family, i miss that feeling,’ he sings.
some fuzzy, modern touches add nuance without overshadowing the album’s homely warmth. riding the Blinds offers a clue to Wilson’s work with Waters, its subtle shifts of gear recalling Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here. Only the lush Enemies, which mines a retro-pop seam similar to the one explored by the arctic Monkeys on tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, sounds out of place.
But this is a rewarding return. Having embraced electronics and a big production on his previous album, Wilson has gone back to his roots and it suits him better — a backroom boy moving confidently centre-stage.
WORKING under the alias soccer Mommy, sophie allison also made her album in Nashville, her hometown. But any similarities with Wilson end there.
a concept piece dealing with growing pains, depression and her mother’s ongoing battle with a terminal illness, Color theory tackles personal hardship with striking honesty and the elan of a more seasoned songwriter.
the record is divided into three colour- coded sections, each reflecting a different mood. Opening with ‘ blue’ songs evoking melancholy, it moves on to ‘yellow’ for physical and emotional pain and ‘grey’ for emptiness and loss.
given its subject matter, it could be heavy-going. But allison, 22, grew up listening to avril Lavigne and taylor swift and imbues her music with deceptively cheery tunes, cathartic humour and an absence of self-pity.
she likens the album, written while on tour with kacey Musgraves, to an old cassette tape that has become messed up over time, and her anxieties are framed by an inventive musical palette built on glitchy guitars, sampled sounds and lo-fi electronics.
On Bloodstream, she contrasts the challenges of adulthood with the innocence of youth. Circle the Drain examines the need to appear strong in the face of adversity for the sake of friends and family, while Crawling in My skin is about sleep paralysis.
More harrowingly, Yellow is the Color Of Her Eyes deals with her mother’s poor health and her own guilt at being absent due to touring commitments.
‘i’m thinking of her from over the ocean,’ she sings against a backdrop of psychedelic, Beatleslike chords.
there are moments of light relief, with Lucy a droll number about falling for the wrong guy. in mocking herself as ‘the princess of screwing up’, she shows admirable resilience even at her lowest ebb.
Both albums are out now. Jonathan Wilson plays London’s Lafayette on April 8 (axs.com).