JW Jones

Newcastle-upon-Tyne; Cluny2  10/12/17

Unless I'm repeating an existing thread; where have you been hiding this guy all these years? I only find him touring his ninth album, High Temperature on the recommendation of my Newcastle buddy, Bob.

What a confection of styles were on offer, kicking off with a classic Surf guitar instrumental, Wham!, with a slight Country tinge and then we were romping through JW’s back catalogue and new album until he really got his Blues on with a tasty BB King cover, but maybe end-of-tour hi-jinks saw a refrain from The Simpsons’ theme appear, mid-solo. That said, the later cover, a Jimmy Rogers, was played virtually solo and straight down the line. That said, he’s backed by a really good band, Laura Greenberg - Bass (and sometimes guitar and William Laurin - Drums & sometimes bass, who really keep things bubbling: and are these guys versatile, each moving round JW onto drums, William onto bass and Laura onto lead guitar (even their driver got a rock’n'roll workout on the drums: and they got a chance to shine on extended instrumental French Toast.
Toward the end of the set I was greatly surprised and pleased by JW’s Ventures medley; Walk Don’t Run, Misirlou; Apache; Secret Agent Man, James Bond Theme, and several others, really tapping the inner Jerry McGee & Nokie Edwards before he did similar in a Jimi vein with Little Wing, Third Stone and a touch Wind Cries Mary. This guy is that versatile on the Les Paul, so fluid and with rich tone - he’s Aynsley’s Canadian cousin (to paraphrase some TV car critic…....)
Make diary space for JW & band’s next visit, you won’t be disappointed.