Jonathan Wilson, Gentle Spirit (Bella Union) **** (From York Press)

Jonathan Wilson, Gentle Spirit (Bella Union) ****

11:19am Friday 20th January 2012 in CD reviews By Charles Hutchinson

IT has taken a long time for us to catch up with Bella Union’s big buzz of 2011, and just about as long to play the album, all 78 gentle minutes of it.

Why the fuss over Jonathan Wilson, who missed the Laurel Canyon groove by fully 30 years, but makes old-fashioned sound thoroughly right for now?

He’s a guitarist for hire in his day job, but has found time to write, craft and produce a lovely, lingering beauty of a debut album that echoes Crosby Stills and Nash and American psych rock and elicits a golden glow from folk songs that temper idealism (Magic Everywhere) with a shot of reality (Woe Is Me).

Not original maybe, but still a new voice in the Canyon canon.