Nick Jonah Davis

★★★★

When The Sun Came THREAD. DL/LP

Derbyshire Primitive solo guitar instrumentals, anyone?

While Gwenifer Raymond has been rightfully acclaimed as a British guitarist putting a local spin on the American Primitive tradition, she’s not the only one on these isles to have learned a bit from John Fahey, Jack Rose et al. Nick Jonah Davis, for instance, has been quietly mastering a parallel sound for the past decade, relocating Appalachian vibrations to the Derbyshire Dales. Big on slide as well as fingerpicking, Davis’s most obvious antecedent is probably Michael Chapman, who’s long been adept at mingling transatlantic folk traditions with experimental tweaks: Goodfellow Of The Riverside here, in particular, captures a similar kind of intimate rowdiness and rough-hewn virtuosity. Recorded in the village church at Atlow for optimal reverberations, it’s far from precious – like all the best guitar soli, Davis understands how this music can flow effortlessly between meditative spaces and pub backrooms.