Glenn Jones Vade Mecum Vinyl LP 2022

1. Vade Mecum
2. Forsythia
3. Bass Harbor Head
4. Black & White and Gray
5. Each Crystal Pane of Glass
6. A Handful of Snow
7. Kathy Maltese
8. Ruthie's Farewell
9. John Jackson of Fairfax, Virginia
10. Away

Glenn Jones is a unique player in the world of solo guitar music. Steeped in both American Primitive guitar music as well as rock and experimental music, Glenn Jones creates rich sonic tapestries with a distinct and stirring voice. Endlessly curious, Jones has spent the better part of four decades exploring the boundaries of expression and storytelling with the guitar and banjo. On Vade Mecum, Jones draws on his personal history to tell stories with elaborate musical detail and emotional weight. Exploring the complexity of personal experience, emotions and our shared histories, Vade Mecum finds Jones painting his music in boundaryless colors, captivatingly vivid.

“Vade Mecum means, literally, ‘go with me.’,” says Jones. “It’s an invitation.” With that invitation opening the album, Jones acts as a guide across the terrain of interiors and exteriors alike, from barking of seals at “Base Harbor Head” to the gentle crumble of “A Handful of Snow.” “I tend to think of my albums as the latest entries into something like an ongoing musical diary,” Jones continues. “I don’t write pieces to order or with anything much in mind; I simply follow wherever the music leads me. Why this tuning? Why this note and not that one? Why this chord and not another? Why this tempo and not a different one? I don’t know, and I love not knowing. The ‘not knowing’ is what keeps me engaged and curious; ‘not knowing’ keeps me coming back.” Jones uses those questions of tempo and chords alongside unique open tunings and capos as a way of posing musical questions to himself which he in turn answers with sublime stories that unveil as much about Jones himself as they uncover memories or impressions of their subjects.

Glenn Jones’ music draws from a deep well of reflection and memory. Vade Mecum revels in the profound idiosyncrasies and contradictions inherent to the act of remembering and the people remembered. Jones summons luminous detail from the complicated web of emotions intrinsically bonded to memories of loved ones, unfamiliar places, and elusive feelings alike. “It’s a fact of life that as we age, we’ll lose people we love,” concludes Jones. “Vade Mecum contains pieces dedicated to a few of these. Though there is melancholy in such losses, my album is intended to celebrate, not just mourn.”