James Elkington Releases Ever-Roving Eye, Uncut’s Album of the Month.

$9.00 – $31.00

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What can we say? We hope that y’all are staying safe, healthy, and sane. On behalf of our artists and all of us here at PoB HQ, thank you for your support during this difficult time. It means a lot. Please be patient as we pack and ship your orders. Due to a county shelter in place order, we’ve been reduced to a family skeleton crew working from home. We’re doing our best. We know you are too. Love to y’all. 

Music is one of our few shared balms these days, but the cruel irony is that it’s an incredibly challenging and stressful time for musicians themselves. So, if you’re able, please consider supporting them by buying music or donating, either directly to a musician or music industry worker, business, or institution you love, or to a tax-deductible charitable program like those suggested by NPR and Pitchfork. When your local record store and/or venue reopens, pay them a visit. On that germane subject … 

Today, Ever-Roving Eye, the beguiling new record by James Elkington (and Uncut’s Album of the Month, “an outstanding record from a humble collaborator”), is available digitally and via direct orders from our webstore and Bandcamp. Due to closures and supply chain issues related to the pandemic, the physical album will be out in record stores and via other mailorders on May 22. Please order however you like, depending on your level of patience and sanity. 

Use Coupon Code EYE for 20% off “Wintres Woma” (through April 5).

$9.00 – $30.00

Chicago songwriter and guitarist Elkington—who has collaborated with everyone from Richard Thompson to Jeff Tweedy to Tortoise—recorded his sophomore album at Wilco’s Loft, expanding upon his “beautiful, complex, and assured” (Pitchfork) 2017 debut Wintres Woma, as well as his recent production and arrangement work for the likes of Steve Gunn, Nap Eyes (he co-produced their brand-new Snapshot of a Beginner), and Joan Shelley. Casting glances back to British folk traditions as well as toward avant-garde horizons, these brilliant new songs, as accessible as they are arcane, buttress Elkington’s brisk guitar figures and baritone poesy with strings, woodwinds, and backing vocals by Tamara Lindeman of the Weather Station.

You can read a long interview with Jim, covering everything from his writing and recording processes to his love of horror films, at PopMatters. For those of you who don’t know him and love him already, it’s a great introduction to his self-effacing charm and brilliance—as is this humorous Under the Radar feature about biscuits, his first kiss, the Soft Cell song “Sex Dwarf,” and more.

Watch the Videos for “Late Jim’s Lament” and “Nowhere Time”

Acclaim for Ever-Roving Eye, Uncut’s Album of the Month

Ever-Roving Eye is Uncut’s Album of the Month, with a 9/10 review and a feature profile.

9/10 (Album of the Month). The triumph that Wintres Woma hinted at … his richest, most complete effort yet. What immediately sets the record apart from many of its counterparts, even from Elkington’s debut, is its swing. An outstanding record from a humble collaborator, a leisurely developer, a man forever caught somewhere between Chorleywood and Chicago. – Uncut

4 stars (Filter lead review). Chicago folk rock’s MVP. Crisp études … subsumed into an elaborate, woody matrix. – MOJO

James Elkington continues to mix gorgeous Bert Jansch-like guitar lines with prime 6 Music melodies. Ever-Roving Eye is his best album yet, his lazy, heated vocals helping songs such as Carousel and Nowhere Time burrow deep in the brain (fans of Bill Callahan and Wilco, listen up). – The Guardian

Elkington’s music strikes a warm traditional tone, with echoes of Pentangle in his agile playing, his warm vocal tone, and the half-blues, half-traditional British tenor of his songs… Wintres Woma in 2018 and now Ever-Roving Eye [are] both warm and gorgeous, studded with striking lyrical imagery, arresting melodies and intriguing musical intervals. – PopMatters

Elkington’s guitar chops are such that he has done session work for Richard Thompson, among others, and his intricate acoustic fingerpicking underpins these sturdy songs, as do subtle melodies built to last. – Associated Press

Like Wintres Woma, the album is rooted in elegant folk with mesmerizing fingerpicked guitar and leans on Elkington’s expressive, dusky baritone. Songs like the subverted Laurel Canyon-styled pop of “Leopards Lay Down” reveal cryptic but compelling flashes of Elkington’s dark wit. – Chicago Sun-Times

4 stars. Another brilliant album… Full of cryptic lyrics and highly skilled musicianship, it’s a wonderfully engaging record that will no doubt appear in the Best Albums of the Year lists come December. – The Morning Star

Photo by Timothy Musho.

All Releases Featuring James Elkington

Keep Sailin’ On Through …

We’ll leave you with Terry Allen‘s “Sailin’ On Through,” from Just Like Moby Dick, a song for this moment, if every there was one… 

Maybe life’s just the cliff
You gotta climb
Go hang by the skin of your teeth
You can fall anytime

So better break out the bottle
Bring on the glass
Fill it up with the good stuff
’Cause nothing’s going to last 

(chorus)

Just go
Sailing on through
Sailing on through
Sailing on through … ohhhh  

Every time the phone rings
Seems some friend is gone
Lost from the world
To ashes, dust, and songs

So every time there’s bad news
You run through the yard
And go hide with the radio
Inside your car

… Turn it up

(chorus)

(instrumental)

You can wander the East Coast
Go wander the West
Never had to wonder
Which one you like the best

And the highway’s your mainline
The highway’s a snake
Hard as a habit
Gone bad is to break

(chorus)

It’s storms in the Gulf
Fires on the Plains
Half the world is screwed
Other half’s insane

So better break out the bottle
Bring on the glass
And fill it up with the good stuff
’Cause everything must pass

(chorus)

… Just like Moby Dick