Gareth Davies-Jones - Chasing Light

Chasing Light is the new studio album from Gareth Davies-Jones, following up his 2008 Water & Light.

With a mixture of self-penned songs and tunes seamlessly merged with traditional offerings, throughout the album Gareth displays a pleasant voice, beautiful song writing and his amazing guitar playing.

Opening song The Fields gives a great introduction to Gareth’s style of gentle lyrics set against a soaring musical score, whilst Ingram, written on the Mandocello, is a stirring tune that shows that he doesn’t need to add lyrics to show off his musical talent.

However, it’s in his re-working of traditional classics where his talents shine through. Reilly is transformed into a pseudo-pop/folk song featuring Stu and Debs Hanna on backing vocals (and is guaranteed to earworm you for days to come) while in Sweet Portaferry the sentiment of longing for your home town resonates deeply.

The standout song on the album is PQ17, a sad song recognising the bravery and heroism of the merchant navy Arctic convoys during World War II. In PQ17 Gareth has managed to write a thought provoking new folk song that should stand the testament of time and be a lasting memorial to those men who lost their lives in the Arctic Circle ferrying supplies to the eastern front.