Solid fourth album from Northamptonshire 4-piece outfit Stevie Jones & The Wildfires covers a lot of ground in a short time.
Release Date: 16th August 2024
Label: Self Release
Formats: CD / Digital
If you live in or around Northamptonshire, odds are that you’ll have come across Stevie Jones & he Wildfires during the band’s travels. The 4-piece outfit – Stevie Jones on vocals and acoustic guitar, Alfie Dabrowski on guitar, Bob Dabrowski on bass and Dave Carter on drums, are well-established in that part of the East Midlands; indeed, Getting There is the band’s fourth album and follows on from their 2023 offering, Clarity in Dusk.
For Getting There, Stevie has expanded the band’s ranks by enlisting the services Adam Ellis (also the album’s producer ) on backing vocals, bass, keyboards, percussion and guitars, Jodie Erica who chips in with some divine harmony vocals on a couple of tracks and Mark Gill who contributes some additional guitar. And, whether the band are tackling gentle folk songs, gritty rock or a widescreen power ballad (and they’re all here; even with a playing time of just 30 minutes, Getting There covers an awful lot of ground) the end result is pretty amazing. Getting There is an album that Stevie and the gang can be justifiably proud of.
Getting There was originally intended to be a solo EP but once Stevie and his mates assembled in the studio, it seems that his ideas grew legs and the project morphed from its humble beginnings into an 8-track conceptual album, comprising six of Stevie’s original compositions, plus a couple of well-executed covers. Stevie takes up the story: “It’s a roller coaster journey through romance, anxiety and recovery – anyone who has been through that cycle will be able to relate to it. [These are] some of the most emotional songs I’ve ever put down.”
It’s a gentle start. Acoustic guitars provide the bulk of the backing as Stevie relates a car journey to England’s east coast, where he contemplates the solitude of the evening in a secluded cove, in opening track So Far East. It’s an atmospheric song, peppered with lush vocal harmonies and discrete guitar licks and the contrast with the bouncy pop of Track 2: 14 Days That Followed a Supermoon, comes as a genuine surprise. The song’s jangly guitars sit on a solid foundation of rich bass and crisp drums that are totally at odds with the anguish of Stevie’s lyrics, in which he seeks to banish a wave of irrational fear.
Without doubt, the most familiar track on Getting There – at least to any new recruits to the Stevie Jones cause, will be the cover of The Waterboys’ Trumpets, a track from that band’s 1985 magnum opus, This is the Sea. It’s a nice, dreamy interpretation of the song; pared-back and folky, with more tasty vocal harmonies and some well-placed flourishes of organ and electric guitar. Then – another sharp-left turn as Stevie delivers a spoken-word poem, Threshold, in which he describes an encounter in Royce Wood (near Peterborough in case you’re wondering…) with the 19th century English poet, John Clare. It’s a dramatic interlude, made all the more so by the electric guitars that creep into the recitation as it reaches its climax.
Lyrics like: “This song is not for you… It’s for the wounded and those who’ve been through a black cloud appearing in a summer sky once blue” set the dark mood for the majestic Skeleton Trees, one of several standout tracks on the album. It’s an insistent, riffy rocker, full of crashing guitars and a wonderfully funky bassline, and the wah-wah guitar solo hints at a level of joy that is stubbornly absent from Stevie’s dystopian lyrics. And, if anything, things get even better with the soulful, intimate, Beautiful Deletion, an exquisitely-crafted song, awash with more of those jangly guitars and a sweetly-simmering organ. It’s one of those songs that builds, gently but with determination, until the vocal release of the refrain: “Beautiful Deletion – let it go tonight.” And Jodie Erica’s delicious vocal harmonies are the icing on the cake!
The band are firing on all cylinders by the time they get to Waiting, the album’s second non-original (this time, it’s a cover of a City And Colour number from his 2008 Bring Me Your Love album) and, once again, Stevie and The Wildfires do the song – and its author – full justice. The sound is full, clear and fresh, and Dave Carter’s drum fills and cymbal-work are particularly impressive.
It’s a slow-building widescreen, power ballad that brings this short but oh-so-sweet album to its conclusion. Stevie reconciles his anxieties and finds a kind of inner peace with Genuine, a song that allows him to express contentment despite the knowledge that things aren’t as good as they could be. From gentle beginnings, the song increases in power until Stevie reaches an outpouring of relief with the concluding refrain, “You give me hope, you keep me moving along” and, once again, Jodie’s harmonies are divine.
Getting There is an excellent album that will appeal to a wide range of musical taste. Well worth a deep listen!
Get a feel for what getting There is all about: Watch the video press release for the album here:
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