John Jenkins: Tuebrook - (Self released) - CD | DL | Stream - Out Now

Acclaimed Liverpool based singer/ songwriter John Jenkins releases his new album Tuebrook which is inspired by his childhood suburban home and upbringing. Making a conscious decision to adopt a far more stripped back approach to the music on this album, it proves to be an outstanding collection of songs, blending both memoir and fiction, which have the ability to inspire you to reflect back on your own life and transport you to places and times which may well be long gone or at best a very distant memory.

I have always considered music to be one of the most powerful and potent forces in the world as we know it. Nothing else can bring people together from such diverse and disparate backgrounds into one huge melting pot of love and emotion and, at its finest, it can strike right to the very core and fabric of your soul. Music has so many qualities from calming, nurturing, healing and reassuring through to inspiring, challenging and even hurting at its most powerful. As Oscar Wilde put it, “music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memories.”

Music was principally born out of the art of storytelling alongside its spiritual connotations. It can be a means of release for pent up feelings and emotions but also a way of capturing memories and documenting or reflecting back on moments in time. You only have to reference back to the immense catalogue of songs written by Bob Dylan in the 60’s to realise how well he documented these pivotal times that were ever changing. Of course, music comes in so many different forms, but however loud and complex you may want it to be, music is often at its most powerful when it is stripped down to its most basic and barest form. And there is no doubt in my mind that the wonderful new album by John Jenkins, Tuebrook, is a classic example of this.

John Jenkins is a Liverpool based artist who is carving out a path for himself as a renowned singer/songwriter on the UK folk, country, and Americana scene. Tuebrook follows on from the critically acclaimed album If You Can’t Forgive You Can’t Love from 2021 and is a very deliberate moved towards a more stripped back sound than previous releases. Indeed, this album is very much about the man, his guitar, his piano and his reminiscences, although John is joined in an engaging and understated way by multi-instrumentalist and producer John Lawton, contributing bass, guitars, lap steel, percussion and keyboards, some keyboard from Chris Howard, and also live show partner Pippa Murdie on mandolin, guitar and vocals.

 

The warm feeling of nostalgia is perfectly illustrated in Christopher Roberts, which reflects back on a friend in junior school who moved onto a different senior school and was never seen again by John and his group of other friends. It is made all the more real and engaging with the inclusion of real spoken recordings from John’s own childhood and a video which takes John back into the classrooms he populated some 50 years ago. Another song, William, also reflects back in an emotional and heartbreaking way on both the good and bad times shared with a childhood friend who lived next door for over 20 years but after getting married and moving away, succumbed to alcoholism and died far too early from pneumonia. Its melancholy feel is enhanced further by the inclusion of old recordings of John and William singing along to Beatles songs and maybe even an early hint at John’s subsequent interest in songwriting.

Maybe I Just Came Along For The Ride is wrapped up in a sense of regretful longing and yearning, with the lap steel guitar in the background really tugging at the heart strings. She Feels Nothing is another beautifully contemplative song seemingly about a lady who is finding it difficult to navigate her way through life. I’m not sure whether it’s the lovely melody running through the song or my own desire to unravel exactly what is proving so challenging about her life, but this is one of the songs I have kept going back to over and over again as its simplicity is just so engaging.

John’s theme of nostalgic reflection is brought to the fore in Time Passing which challenges how well he has used his own time and the decisions he has made over the years, whether it be in relationships or just life in general as he “took each day as it came, maybe I should have listened more.” 43 And Counting reflects this theme of time passing over onto a woman who has lost her partner to a younger woman and is now reaching an age where it may be difficult to fulfil her long held desire for children, ultimately leading to her feeling a sense of loneliness and despair at her plight.

 

Shadows also addresses the passage of time but in this case reflects on the way that towns and communities are adversely impacted by change, with hometowns being subjected to urban and social decay through lack of support and investment. The almost haunting backing vocal adds a further sense of melancholy to the narrative as John declares “How can I be part of something my friend that ends in despair.” Idaho meanwhile draws on a traditional melody as John expounds on his fascination with American place names.

Sense Of Wonder opens with the birds singing alongside the milkman doing his morning round as John reflects back on early, yet obviously vivid memories of time spent with his Grandma, being lulled to sleep and waking up as the day is dawning and life recommences once again. The narrative paints such a clear picture of what is in John’s mind that it can so easily prompt you to recall times of your own almost long forgotten, yet which still helped to shape your life and learning. Lost In The Storm (A Sadness Far Too Heavy) allows John’s imagination to run wild as he imagines the sort of characters that may have lived and passed through Tuebrook, with a self-confessed plagiarisation of the Beatles Eleanor Rigby in having a priest as one of the characters. Closing song, Mr Ford’s Hardware Store, is an unusual but fitting finale as it presents a short medley of songs by a local infants school focused on a busy hardware store which clearly filled John with a sense of awe and excitement as a small child.

Tuebrook is an outstanding collection of inspiring and emotive songs which demands repeated listens to dig deeper into each of the characters and memories it depicts. John Jenkins has captured such a richness and warmth in the way he conveys the stories which were inspired by the Liverpool suburb into which he was born and raised. Each song has an honesty and sincerity which makes it feel so real and invoke such a timeless quality to the music, not to mention a little humour which is the very least you would expect from a Scouser.

Above all else, the songs on Tuebrook explore so many areas of human vulnerability and, as a consequence, allow you to relate so many of the stories to your own life and experiences. It will have you reflecting back on times gone by, both happy and sad. Tuebrook is an album which will most definitely stand the test of time and may well prove to be a defining moment in the life of John Jenkins as well as his musical career.