Guitarist and seasoned improviser
Glenn Jones is a self-professed disciple of
John Fahey and the types of rural-leaning guitar styles often dubbed "American Primitive." With
My Garden State,
Jones spins ten instrumentals with alternately tuned and experimentally capoed acoustic guitars, banjo, and occasional field recordings. Following the banjo-heavy
Barbecue Bob in Fishtown and 2011's more stylistically varied
The Wanting,
My Garden State seems more of a single-minded vision, with its meandering compositions interlocking to cultivate a peaceful, sometimes somber mood. The woozy, subtly echoed dirge of "Blues for Tom Carter" and the lonesome shut-in banjo of the title track tend more toward the heavy-hearted side of the album, but fit as nice counterpoints to more hopeful moments like the patient open-tuned strums of "Alcouer Gardens." Standout track "Across the Tappan Zee" slowly grows from a traditionally influenced banjo figure, eventually opening up with accompaniment from a second banjo spreading generously across the stereo field, conjuring up soft memories of imagined childhoods in New Jersey summers. Conversely, "Like a Sick Eagle Looking at the Sky" stretches across its almost eight minutes with a lurching, improvised feel, sturdy and rooted with the same presence as old men observing a frantic world from their stoops.
My Garden State, much like many of
Jones' efforts, is a thoughtful and evocative exploration of the limitations of traditional guitar and banjo and his own unique lens on the work begun by
Fahey, et al. More cohesive and profound at times than the records that preceded it, the album sets a tone masterfully, and lingers contentedly and without rush, allowing the listener to drop in and sit for a spell with
Jones as he ruminates on his various lush instrumental moods.