"In My Own Time" and "Many Miles" by Stone Bear
Review
I've decided to take the plunge & to refer to Stone Bear in the singular now since the band consists entirely of David John. It'll take some getting used to my end of years of plurality in the matter but you are probably better at managing change than I am.
Today he has dropped two more of his solo pieces under the collective title of ‘In My Own Time': one is a track of the same name, the other is called "Many Miles". Both therefore slot perfectly into the conceptual framework of his recent work which taken together give an ever more detailed description of an individual on a journey but to a timetable of their own choosing: the immediately preceding releases being "Long Way Round" and "Suitcase in My Hand".
I'm coming to the conclusion in my own slow way that this growing body of work may well be as (if not more) philosophical than descriptive and perhaps related to the changes in his own life & adjustments made to it as a consequence. The clincher is of course the parallel evolution of his sound & possibly there is a chicken & egg debate in there somewhere between the form and the content.
What is certain though is that although solo & contemplative, these tracks are not wholly acoustic as such: "In My Own Time" is played on an electric instrument though its partner features an acoustic one. Which makes me realise in my trying to describe his paradigm shift over the last few years in which his style has moved from urban to rural blues forms, I may have over-generalised to the point of suggesting much more homogeneity of the recent songs than is the case. This is neatly exemplified by this pair: neither to be sure is exactly speeding down the road but one has a taut spring in its step while the other ambles along. If you met them, you might see one turning round to urge the other on while the latter doesn't break a sweat.
What struck me after a few listens was how, although "In My Own Time" is blues song, it's the sort of blues song Bob Marley used to take and make his own. If you only know his later highly produced international hits, check out The Wailers' earlier work from the late 1960s with Lee Perry. There are loads of gentle acoustic songs which draw from soul, pop and the blues which have a charm later smothered in the studio. David even sings with some of Bob's mannerisms of that period.
If this one was clipped, Caribbean & precise, then "Many Miles" brings the form closer to traditional English folk music with his finger picking not just conjuring up a gentle compulsive melody but enfolding its arms around the beat which helps produce that contrast in gait I remarked on just now.
This in turn helps shine light on one of the crucial aspects of David's writing. Potential charges of cultural appropriation are always in play when the blues are played by people who palpably did not go through the same experiences as those who created the form. By melding the structures and conventions with others from closer to his own roots, ones which never were prominent in the first generations, a hybrid yet fresh and above all honest new version emerges.
Beyond that lies an even more drastic shift: roads may still be long & journeys tiring, but the traditional pessimism is replaced in Stone Bear's music with greater optimism (homes are not only yearned for but occasionally reached). In fact David is making this cycle of travelling blues sound less of an ordeal & more like therapeutic mindfulness: a chance to slow down, appreciate life & muse upon it.
