"High" by Mos Eisley Bros

The world is a strange & dynamic, wonderful place. Roughly a year ago, when reviewing Jono Wright's debut solo album ‘Special Measures', it seemed helpful to offer you the reference point of his being a member of the highly regarded trio Mos Eisley Bros.

Since then, his own profile has risen higher & he's been written about repeatedly for his work with the Stratford-based Street Arts Project & subsequently the spin off band from the professional musicians supporting that endeavour, WLDFLWRS.

Their "Last Waltz" tribute to The Band has evolved from a one off charity gig for Street Arts into a national tours & now recording their own material (amongst the frenzy of activity, the 21^st December WLDFLWRS gig in Halifax particularly catches the eye with star studded support from the likes of Nigel Clark, Chris Helme and the legendary PP Arnold).

Glorious as all this is, one might almost have forgotten Jono's own band & so I'm delighted that amidst all the other things he's been doing, their own debut single "High" comes out on the 16^{th of} August.

Written by Jono, it features him on guitars, harmonica and lead vocals, Spesh Maloney on bass guitar, percussion & backing vocals and producer Tim Walker provides more guitars, piano, keyboards & backing vocals. (George Shilling mixed and mastered the single).

The sad loss of Matt Hernández has set me to reflect upon bigger picture questions. I certainly recollect that from the earliest days of my attending his music evenings, long before I started writing these articles, he featured a few talented artists who were influenced by American roots music. They tended to bemoan lack of performance opportunities: finding Folk or Jazz festivals the only events who'd have them.

Years down the line "Americana" events proliferate and the more cynical performers have had great commercial success from music based around the apparent conventions (and even cliches) of the genre(s) and the amount of bandwagon jumping has been impressive. My personal bugbear is often the affected accents (and random dropping in of US place names): there have been tracks to which my initial response has been laughter.

Therefore to finally have the first release of material by an act whose love & understanding of such music is wholly genuine, is uplifting. "High", moreover is a real song with a real lyric rather than a pastiche as cited above.

These players know their music & behave towards it both with integrity & respect but also keep it fresh by using it as a vehicle for something they want to & need to say: as the artists they admire did.

Musically, they possess those rare attributes of taste & skill to pull off that challenging trick of laying down a song of considerable complexity and detail yet giving the impression of the simplicity of genuine roots music. The feel is one of a spontaneous performance captured live, though I suspect that they did spend plenty of time getting it right.

Keeping your output rare increases its value & keeps your audience hungry for more, but even so, I suspect that prior to this release, the profile of Mos Eisley Bros may have dipped below the threshold of its due: it was high time that they reminded us of what they can do. I hope that they find the time to record & release more & get out there and play live as much as possible.

"High" is a great song regardless of perceived genre: intoxicating & compelling. Audiences will enjoy it greatly without finding the necessity that I do to over-analyse it nor its significance in any big picture.

Equally, musicians will respond to the quality of composition and performance & hopefully it will persuade some that "Americana", however one might define that, is a living & vibrant culture & not merely a template.