Woke up this morning to find the second release from Jon Langford's the Men of Gwent had arrived through my letter box, and very good it is too. Four years on from their warmly received debut, “The Legend of LL”the new one is called the President of Wales and it's a looking like a serious contender for my annual end of year musical highlights.
Born in Wales, now resident in Chicago, Langford has had a long and illustrious musical journey with the likes of The Mekons, https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-mekons-deserted_22.html Three Johns and the Waco Brothers. A true living legend with such a prolific output summarizing Jon Langford’s contributions to punk rock and all of its permutations, as well as his career-long obsession with American roots music, is liable to overwhelm anyone. Langford has grit in his voice and melody in his soul. A punk-rock pioneer, a troubadour for our times,, a singer-songwriter who writes with the authority of having lived a life rather than imagined it, who was once dubbed by one critic as “the spiritual brother-in-arms of Dylan Thomas and Johnny Cash”
The new album continues with themes around the bands home city of Newport and across Wales, in what could be described as psycho-geography, tapping into the veins of our unknown rich history. Album opener "Grave Alexandra" documents the 1909 Docks Disaster that killed 46 workers.
Men of Gwent - Grave Alexander
"Bulmore Lido" covers the closure of an open air swimming pool in Caerleon where Jon Langford "nearly drowned" and "Home of the Vote" outlines the recent new developments in the city centre while referring back to the legacy of the Chartists. The song "London to Llanelli Line" records a chance meeting with the late Deke Leonard of the band Man, The sadly departed local crooner has a song where he is mentioned alongside the legendary Alan Vega (singer of the American Band Suicide). The album includes a wonderful cover of Joe Strummer’s ‘X-Ray Style’ which more than honours the memory of one of Newport’s most prestigious former residents.Elsewhere Joe is found digging graves in "Bassaleg Road Earthquake" while the title track "President of Wales" gives Jon the opportunity to let the world know"he can never go home"...
All in all fine quality stuff, awash with fine musicianship, I strongly recommend, Jon Langford delivers the goods once again, sadly his Men of Gwent are yet to receive the recognition they truly deserve, hope this changes soon, get their new record here :- Country Mile Records
