Jack Sharp - Good Times Older (2020) [Hi-Res]

Good Times Older is Jack Sharp's first solo album, following 13 years fronting psych rock band Wolf People. This collection of 11 songs features Jack's guitar and voice, recorded in an austere and spare setting, using mostly traditional music and words gleaned from his home county of Bedfordshire.

It's imbibed with a very tangible sense of place, memory and belonging, with plaintive, but at times necessarily intricate guitar lines, accompanied by a fine distinctive English voice that harks back to English tradition, but without any problematic rose-tinted nostalgia. It's a nod to, but is not defined by, the 1960s revivalists like Martin Carthy and Nic Jones. Rather, it shows that the English folk tradition remains as vital as ever, when treated with the respect and care that Jack Sharp shows.

Sparse embellishments come in the form of Stick In The Wheel's Ian Carter (guitar) and Nicola Kearey (harmonies), with strings by Edwin Ireland and concertina by Laura Smyth. From Here Records continue to release the best contemporary artists working in and around the English Folk tradition.