Dreamy, mystical, ethereal; calming songs that are beautifully sung and played with feeling and accomplishment.  Bath-based singer-songwriter Jody Prewett ticks the boxes on Places Beyond, his sophomore album.

CLAIRVOYANCY, HAUNTINGS, ALIEN ENCOUNTERS…

Places Beyond is the sophomore album from Bath-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jody Prewett; it follows his 2024 debut album, River Songs.

Places Beyond is a remarkable album.  It’s a showcase for Jody’s highly-accomplished fingerpicked acoustic guitar style – a skill that he’s been honing during his extensive schedule of performing in noted venues around the UK.  But that’s only half the story…

As well as writing and singing all the songs on Places Beyond, Jody also undertakes all the instrumental heavy-lifting.  Alongside the aforementioned acoustic guitar, he also plays electric guitar, ukulele, bass guitar and keyboards, with help only arriving in the form of light percussion, courtesy of Producer Tom Burgess.  But what REALLY distinguishes Places Beyond is the dreamy, mystical, ethereal quality of Jody’s songs.  They tackle such subjects as alien encounters, clairvoyancy, hauntings and adventures amongst standing stones and crop circles, and they’re performed with such warmth and sincerity that the listener is immediately convinced.

TIMELESS MUSIC

Jody cites Fripp & Eno and Sufjan Stevens as musical influences, and he also gives an honorable mention to The Howl, an album by Cornish drone folk artist, Daisy Rickman.  But, if I was to select a pair of artists whose stamps are particularly detectable throughout Places Beyond, I’d go for John Martyn and Richard Thompson.  Martyn’s blissful otherworldliness pervades the album, and Thompson has evidently provided the template for much of Jody’s fluent guitar style, particularly his rags.

The John Martyn influence is immediately evident as a surge of ambient sound introduces opening track, Turning Away From the Light.  Jody’s guitar is both precise and laid-back and his voice drifts amongst clouds of keyboard and swishes of percussion.  This is timeless music…

SPECIAL MAGIC

Shuffling guitar is backed by tinkles of soft, rich, keyboard for the jazzy Wild Mind.  Jody’s voice continues to occupy a higher plane, but it becomes more earthbound as a few Lennon-ish tones start to creep in. 

Field recordings of birds and windy moorlands are used on several of the Places Beyond tracks, to provide an underlying sonic tapestry that weaves the songs together, and the first burst of such sound is used to introduce the magical Black Mountain Rose.  It’s one of the album’s folkier tracks and it’s the first to feature Jody’s ragtime fingerpicking.  Aside from the wild-sounding intro, the mystical effects are kept to minimum and Jody’s voice is vivid and tuneful as his guitar weaves its special magic.

VIEW FROM INSIDE THE FLOCK

The folky mood continues with Magnolia Moon.  Jody’s percussive guitar figure is given extra sparkle by dashes of electric guitar and he provides his own vocal harmonies for the song’s “Magnolia moon – faded too soon” refrain.  But things take an ethereal turn for The Apparition, Jody’s story of a ghostly encounter.  More field sounds emerge, then fade away as Jody’s precise guitar kicks in to accompany his recollection of being visited by a deceased friend, “along an old railroad track.”  “It’s only in my head,” he says, as he tries to give himself reassurance, but the visitations persist – and Jody’s music provides a suitably haunting soundtrack to his ghostly experiences.

Places Beyond, the album’s title track, is a blissfully evocative passage of deftly fingerpicked guitar, short but breathtaking – and it provides an interlude before the dreamy explorations are resumed.  Jody’s insightful lyrics to Silver Bird are written from the perspective of a migrating bird, observing the activities, routines and tribulations of the flock he inhabits.  And the sensation of flying amongst the flock is heightened by Jody’s flowing guitar and keyboard accompaniment.

There’s more joyful ragtime fingerpicking with Truthseeker, and I’m struck by how comfortably Jody’s voice seems to sit within the music, rather than assuming a more accustomed front-seat place.  But, beware – the aliens are coming…

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

Shuffling rag guitar accompaniment makes the prospect of eloping with an extra-terrestrial being seem like the most natural thing in the world, in the instantly likeable Oblivion Sun.  “I never believed that the day would come, when we’d both run to oblivion,” sings Jody – and he does so with such conviction that anyone listening will want to tag along.

Places Beyond is wrapped up with The Clairvoyant, the tale of a shore-dwelling lady mystic.  Jody’s considered guitar lines are underpinned by swells of keyboard, as his lyrics recall past adventures amongst standing stones and corn circles.  It’s a song that encapsulates Places Beyond: dreamy, mystical and ethereal.  Beautifully sung, and played with feeling and accomplishment.

You can check out Jody’s Why I Love feature on John Martyn here.

Jody Prewett: Website

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