Former Cul de Sac frontman Glenn Jones is a virtuoso guitarist who’s part of that whole John Fahey American Primitivist school. He plays lovely, ruminative fingerpicked acoustic pieces that bring their own strange narrative weight. It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Jones; he released The Giant Who Ate Himself And Other New Works For 6 And 12 String Guitar, his last album, back in 2018. In a few months, Jones will return with a new album called Vade Mecum, and he’s just shared a piece from the LP.

Vade Mecum might be a solo-acoustic instrumental album, but Jones frames it as a series of stories drawn from his own personal history. In a press release, Jones has this to say:

Vade Mecum means, literally, “go with me.” It’s an invitation…

I tend to think of my albums as the latest entries into something like an ongoing musical diary. I don’t write pieces to order or with anything much in mind; I simply follow wherever the music leads me. Why this tuning? Why this note and not that one? Why this chord and not another? Why this tempo and not a different one? I don’t know, and I love not knowing. The “not knowing” is what keeps me engaged and curious; “not knowing” keeps me coming back.

“Away,” the last song on the album, is a lovely rumination that fills up a room nicely. Listen to it below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Vade Mecum”
02 “Forsythia”
03 “Bass Harbor Head”
04 “Black & White And Grey”
05 “Each Crystal Pane Of Glass”
06 “A Handful Of Snow”
07 “Kathy Maltese”
08 “Ruthie’s Farewell”
08 “John Jackson of Fairfax, Virginia”
10 “Away”

Vade Mecum is out 6/24 on Thrill Jockey.