Fish Records - Bill Jones - Two Year Winter

Full Review

After her first two enjoyable and promising studio albums, this new disc is where her obvious talent and the past few years experience have come together – resulting in a stronger, more mature, and consistently enjoyable collection than her earlier albums.
Following the folk-singer/songwriter furrow ploughed by Kate Rusby, ‘Two Year Winter’ is an even mix of traditional numbers and songs from contemporary writers, and like the best albums with this approach the flow between the two styles is seamless. For this overlapping of styles to work properly the choice of material is important, and here she use songs from contemporary artists such as Anne Hills and Pete Morton, both strong contemporary folk writers and performers. The continuity is helped by the instrumentation – piano, guitar, violin, cello and double bass are used throughout, and these along with various other instruments create a modern folk feel across the 12 songs.
Her vocals are really strong, there’s an obvious confidence, depth and dynamism that wasn’t present on her earlier albums, it’s instantly engaging and really helps the listener focus on the lyrics.
That the highlights come from both the trad and modern material is testament to the choice and strength of the songs on the disc – ‘The Holland Mistress’ is a trad English folk song, that is flanked in the running order by two contemporary songs (‘From My Window’ and ‘Two Year Winter’), it’s a great sequence that sums up the strengths of the disc.
‘Two Year Winter’ is a strong contemporary folk album from a young female artist, and like the Rusby discs of the past few years it has a strong trad edge but remains accessible and enjoyable for all.

Bill Jones - Two Year Winter

Jones Bill