Davey Johnstone Band

★★★ Deeper Than My Roots CHERRY RED. CD/DL

First solo album in 49 years from Elton John’s guitarist and musical director.

A veteran of over 3,000 shows with Elton John, Davey Johnstone’s solo career has been on hold since 1973’s winsome

Smiling Face. All these years later, the 70-year-old Scot has taken advantage of John’s farewell tour’s postponements to have another go. Although John’s drummer Nigel Olsson guests on Melting Snow, it’s a family affair: Johnstone’s 16-year-old son Elliot sings most of the songs, three other sons play and a daughter designed the cover. For all the occasionally clunky lyrics

(“I realise that we are climbing the rungs of love”), it’s an overwhelmingly goodnatured, echo-swamped affair packed with dreamy harmonies and languid arrangements which suggest Jack Johnson as much as David Crosby. There’s a tasteful take on Here, There & Everywhere, but Boxer In The Corner rocks surprisingly hard, while instrumentals Walt Dizney [sic] and the sitar-and-synthesizer infused Black Scotland pack quite the punch.