This week marks the 45th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix’s death, and Benji Kirkpatrick bravely marks the event with a solo acoustic album of Hendrix songs. A key member of Bellowhead, who will be breaking up next year, he has been a Hendrix fan since childhood, and his aim is to show Hendrix’s skill as a songwriter “by stripping back the songs”. There’s no sense of danger or furious guitar solos in this respectful study of Hendrix’s musical building blocks: Kirkpatrick concentrates on melody and lyrics, backing his sturdy vocals with bouzouki, banjo and mandolin. Foxy Lady is treated to a strummed riff, The Wind Cries Mary and May This Be Love sound like lyrical folk songs, and there’s a driving blues backing to Hear My Train a-Comin’. A well-performed set – but it sent me straight back to the far more thrilling Hendrix originals.
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