Wistful ballads, quasi-traditional epics, anti-war songs with a difference and the experiences of living.  Nuneaton duo KC Jones leave no stone unturned on Roots – their latest album.

Release Date:  Out now

Label: Self Release

Formats: CD, Digital

The Warwickshire folk scene has certainly been active amongst these pages recently.  It isn’t THAT long ago that Ellie Gowers took us on her lockdown-inspired ramble around the pathways and towpaths of Warwick, Leamington and their environs with her excellent Dwelling By The Weir album.  Then, just a couple of weeks ago, we were charmed all over again by Tiny Boat, Lauren South’s delightful collection of songs of love, friendship, motherhood, the natural world and the night sky.  And it seems that our review of Lauren’s album sparked a bit of a bonfire in another part of this county…

KC Jones is an acoustic duo based in Nuneaton and they’re fully paid-up members of the scene that also provides rich pastureland for Ellie and Lauren, as well other scenesters like Keith Donnelly and a bravura brood of Bisikers (don’t worry – I’ll explain).  The duo comprises husband and wife team, Karen Killeen-Jones and Colin Jones; Roots is their second full-length album and, when it was released back in April – we missed it (these things happen, unfortunately…) but spotting our review of Tiny Boats prompted Karen to bring Roots to our attention.  And we’re soooo glad that she did!

Roots is a lovely album; thoroughly warm and engaging, with a comfortable home-made feel about it.  The album’s twelve tracks cover an impressive area of ground, from poetic wistful love ballads to songs that take a deep dive into the philosophy of living.  In between, there’s a couple of authentically modelled quasi-traditional numbers that could conceivably have started life on sixteenth-century broadsheets and a pair of stunning anti-war songs.  They’re all the fruits of Karen’s fertile mind, and they’re all lovingly performed. 

The duo’s acoustic guitars provide the lion’s share of the accompaniment, but there’s also some tasteful embellishments from several of their Warwickshire friends, and Karen’s voice is something very, very special – Joni Mitchell comes immediately and persistently to mind, and, when the going gets raucous, there are also hints of Mary Travers to be detected.  And, when she’s in a huskier mood, there were also moments on Roots when Karen’s voice puts me in mind of Alison Steadman as Candis-Marie – and I mean that in a very complimentary way.

And, returning to the Warwickshire co-conspirators, Keith Donnelly helps out on 12-string guitar, Lauren South adds some lovely violin on a couple of tracks, whilst, as for all those Bisikers – well, Mick chips in with guitar, Deb offers up a touch of woodwind and Tom takes up his position on the drum stool.

The calypso-flavoured Hey! Opens the show and sets the mood for the album, and the Joni Mitchell inflections in Karen’s voice are immediately apparent.  It’s relaxed, laid back and infectious, and it left me in no doubt – “I’m going to enjoy Roots!”  There’s a nod in the direction of the great Rabbie Burns in the lyrics to My Love, and a whole lotta Karen.  Deb’s tasteful flute provides the perfect dressing to Colin’s and Karen’s acoustic guitars on a rich, mellow song, awash with some lovely harmonies.

We get our first serving of life philosophy in the gospel-tinged Stronger, as Karen’s well-considered lyrics focus upon how we should use the disappointments and frustrations we encounter as learning experiences, before Keith takes the floor with his twelve-string to add a special something to the soothing Dreamer’s Lullaby.  It’s truly beautiful – the kind of song that we need more of in these troubled times.

Colin takes the vocals for The Coming of the Cannon, a stirring conscript’s lament for the wife and family he’s had to leave behind.  There’s a drum-roll dominated military rhythm, but absolutely no glorification, as Colin sings lyrics like: “If I weren’t a fool, I shouldn’t be here/ I’ve left my wife, and all that’s dear.”

Karen’s singing is awesome throughout this album, but there are two or three tracks on which she really pulls out the stops, and that’s the case for the trad-flavoured Girl With The Golden Hair.  A gentle, slow-paced ballad, the lyrics tell the story of a Princess who is stolen from her father’s castle by The Devil(!)  It’s a long song, like all good story-ballads should be, and Karen’s passionate vocals are guaranteed to keep any listener spellbound.

And she speaks for, I’d guess, over 90% of Roots listeners, with her opening couplet to Special, one of the album’s truly outstanding tracks.  “I wasn’t born with model looks or a silver spoon – so I’ve spent a lifetime reaching for the moon” will surely resonate with all but the most fortunate amongst us, and she follows that particular salvo with statements like “You don’t understand the pain I feel when nothing’s ever right,” “People like me are on the outside looking in” and the killer: “When it comes to life experience, we could write the bloody book.”  It’s an excellent song that rightly insists that neither appearance, age, race, gender nor social status are barriers to anyone being as “Special” as anyone else.

And that high standard is kept for the devastating Tommy’s War, another touching and thoroughly poignant anti-war song.  The lyrics examine the lasting impact of a World War II soldier’s experiences in Burma, particularly how those experiences prevented him from savouring any taste of victory, and they culminate in the wise advice: “Let the lessons be heard and heeded, let not millions have suffered in vain, let the meeting of these, the great nations, be never in conflict again.”  Advice that, sadly, continues to be disregarded on a daily basis.

Sea sound effects and a poem, read by Colin, set the scene for the mystical, mysterious Siren’s Call, a haunting, engaging song, in which Karen manages to sound both tempting and vulnerable as she assures her entrapped sailor victim that “A Siren’s call is what I’m giving; Before tonight, you were not living.”  Then, we’re back to the trad idiom for the jolly/ macabre Cut Throat Jack, a song that brings Steeleye Span and Kate Bush together under the same roof.  Ex-butcher Jack, of the appropriately-named Cut Throat Lane, leaves his trade to become a mass murderer, with the inevitable result that the story ends with him swinging from the gallows.  It’s slightly weird, it’s fun, and there are some more of those lovely harmonies to enjoy.

The wistful Goodbye Little Girl, the story of a girl leaving childhood behind and told from the perspective of the parent, would make a great pop ballad.  Karen’s observational lyrics are inspired, and she really rises to the challenge of delivering them.  And that’s just about it – but, in the best folk club tradition, KC Jones have decided to send us all on our way with a rousing yet calming farewell song.  I haven’t seen KC Jones perform live yet, but when I do (and I will – I’m ‘on the patch’) I bet that they finish with Time For Us To Leave You.  Whether it’s wrapping up this album, or providing to the finale to a great evening of music, it’s a song that invokes a warm feeling of contentment – and Karen gives it everything!

Roots – It’ll make you wish you lived around here!

Watch the KC Jones promotional video for Roots here:

KC Jones online: Official Website / Facebook / Bandcamp

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