“Mid-Atlantic” is usually a somewhat damning term in pop, applied to soft rock originating from, say, Croydon but aspiring to be Californian. In the case of guitarist James Elkington, it becomes something quite different. He grew up a home counties Smiths fan before moving to Chicago some 20 years back to immerse himself in that city’s music scene, playing and producing with the likes of Jeff Tweedy, Tortoise and Joan Shelley.
Like its predecessor, Wintres Woma (2017), Ever-Roving Eye shows Elkington is more than a jobbing journeyman. He’s accompanied by a coterie of classy Chicago musicians but the album’s inspiration lies in Britain’s folk-rock traditions and the finger-picking of guitar wizards such as Bert Jansch, Davey Graham and Richard Thompson. Like them, Elkington is a limited vocalist, but he puts his husky baritone to good use on 10 self-composed songs whose introversion comes with unexpected lyrical flourishes (“Everyone’s archive weighs them down”). His playing dazzles throughout, be it the rolling lines and solos of Nowhere Time, the jazzy stylings of Late Jim’s Lament, or the intricacies of Rendlesham Way, an instrumental tribute to his Chiltern Hills upbringing. A low-key, slow-burn delight.
