Babel Label / Latest Releases / When The Crowds Have Gone by Billy Jenkins
When The Crowds Have Gone
Billy Jenkins
Release
date: 7-10-07
Label: Babel Label
REVIEW FROM THE TIMES by John Bungey,
January 08, 2005,p.
Billy Jenkins has enjoyed/endured one of those intriguing careers — in pop, comedy, jazz and now the blues — in which he has managed to delight the critics and a lot of live audiences without ever remotely troubling the chart compilers. When the Crowds Have Gone will doubtless maintain this proud cult status. Switching from electric to acoustic guitar, Jenkins unveils a set based loosely on country blues. It suits his agitated, virtuosic playing and the fierce growl of his vocals. “I wear my grandad’s clothes cos he’s dead,” he hollers in a Tom Waits-style roar on the opening track, In My Bones, before launching into his darkest record yet, with many of the lyrics dealing with the break-up of his marriage. “My life is grey and overcast, everyone else got blue skies,” he laments on Come Round and See Me. Get the Poison Out and Trouble in Mind reinforce a mood of middle-age melancholia. The sound is spare, with only Dylan Bates on violin and Steve Watts on double bass adding intermittent support. The odd moment of humour and the inimitable guitar playing (notably Sitting on the Dock of eBay) leaven the message. Jenkins is generally best appreciated live, but in the great tradition of Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, this is a strong set inspired by personal misfortune. And, who knows? With Tom Waits only visiting once every 17 years, maybe there’s a career opening for a gruff, veteran surrealist.
