Art of Landing
Craig Joiner releases his first solo album after 25 in the music business. Craig’s ‘day job’ is that of guitarist in the band ‘Romeo’s Daughter’ and musically, ‘Art of Landing’ is about as far away from that AOR sound as you can get.
The album, produced by Craig himself is a beautiful acoustic folk effort, with Craig on guitar and vocal duties, as well as bass, mandolin and bodhran. Jez Poole on the double bass and whistle, Mary Hall on the cello and Lolly Joiner and Mick Flinn on backing vocals.
The album opens with the title track and it really does set the tone for the whole album. A relaxed, folk infused sound and Craig’s finger picking guitar style truly does complement his vocal performance.
Craig has written all the songs on the album, bar one. He has included a beautiful rendition of ‘May you never’, a song originally by folk legend, John Martyn. Personally, in my opinion this song is even better than the original. Sacrilege you may cry. Whether it’s because I’m not well versed with the folk scene of the seventies, but I have to say, I found the original a little dull. Craig has rejuvenated the song and he made it accessible to a modern audience. It keeps the essence of the original, but it feels somewhat more contemporary.
I would say that is true about the whole album. Yes, it has its roots in folk, but it certainly isn’t dreary. If anything, it’s the polar opposite. Its bright, it’s cheerful and optimistic and most important accessible to a ‘millennial’ audience. I thoroughly enjoyed this debut album, despite it taking 25 to come to fruition and my only hope is the follow up album doesn’t take a further 25 years to come about.
