Review: Jonny Walker – This is Not Me
Published on February 15th, 2013 | Jonny Abrams
Jonny Walker is not just a keen buskers’ rights activist but also a Thoroughbred part of the lifeblood and brickwork of Britain’s sacrosanct network of travelling troubadours. His new five-track EP This is Not Me is characteristic of the man: heartfelt, unpretentious and utterly charming.
The immediately embracing and Nick Drake-y drop-D of opener “Beautiful Morning” casts it as a simple song stuck in a spellbindingly enlightened moment – it benevolently welcomes in some sweet string and moves on to “Song For Bernie”, a fragile, Ralph McTell-like piece of folky storytelling accompanied by lusciously dolorous cello. “She never missed the chance to move her beaten body, broken badly with the beat / To briefly find herself at one with the music of the street” Walker sings tenderly, tacitly empathising with that particular oneness. Lovely Beatles-y chord progression to the chorus, too.
“Last Waltz of the Summer” oversees a Dylan-y outbreak of organs and a shuffling triplet rhythm roughly in keeping with the title, with “We are just wastrels and chancers / Too eager to cut all our ties” further evidencing Walker’s canny way with a lyric. The ensuing title track finds a man trying to make sense of it all, determined to see the beauty amidst all the pain, and finally the seafaring mute-strum of “Strange Disease” throws in a delicious major 7th chord or two on its way towards a Shack-ishly psychedelic ending.
If you do happen to pass Jonny Walker on the streets of Leeds or Liverpool, be sure to stop and commend him on a jolly fine EP.
Rocksucker says: Four Quails out of Five!
This is Not Me EP is out now and available at www.jonnywalker.co.uk