Live Reviews
“Jon draws on the best of English troubadour traditions, with beautiful fingerstyle guitar and heartfelt songs” Oxford Times
“Superb musicianship and rapport with the audience made for a great evening” Readifolk
“A show that just oozes gigging experience: it’s not just his assured guitar fingering or his loose unhurried vocals that show he’s a past master at this sort of thing, but it’s the off the cuff banter that draws everyone together and manages to make the event feel like an intimate party for the first time that day… “Hold My Breath” reminds us of Bert Jansch’s unflustered melancholia, and the whole set balances implausibly between introspection and cheekiness in a thoroughly winning fashion.” Oxfordbands.com
Album Preview
“Highly acclaimed acoustic guitarist and songwriter Jon Fletcher is currently working on his second album from which he has unveiled a few rough mixes… Tracks include the classic ‘Black is the Colour’ on which Jon continues to weave his influences of English folk and jazz into his unique sound. He also does a lovely version of ‘Oh The Wind and the Rain’ which culminates in a lovely gentle rolling jig ‘Clare Favourite’ (which I believe is played by Jane Griffiths – Telling the Bees). They tune goes by other names including ‘Old Favourite’ and ‘Kilfenora’, it’s sometimes played faster but it really shines at this pace. The final tracks demonstrate Jon’s songwriting skills and if this ‘work in progress’ is anything to go by he’ll have a cracking album out soon.”Alex Gallacher, Folk Radio UK
Album Reviews – A Month In The Summer
“Erstwhile member of Epona and now with Magpie Lane, Jon embraces quiet-spoken singer-songwriterdom. With imagery drawn from the natural world and intricately-moulded guitar traceries always close to centre-stage, he creates a wistful, chamber-Pentangle sound-world. Gently attractive; a definite grower.” fRoots, Nov 08:
“It’s an opportune moment to review Jon Fletcher’s ‘A Month In The Summer’. There’s more than a hint of the delta in this collection of folk blues. It feels like walks down dusty country tracks waiting for the crops to ripen. Feet dipped in a brook witing for the bell on the fishing pole to ring. Getting crayfish out of the trap and slapping them on the barbie. It’s also an album with a sense of it’s self. Fletcher, has an edge to his voice that adds to the sense of drama, almost with an actor’s quality as he captures the emphasis within the words and tune.” fatea-records.co.uk
“Sometimes you just happen to listen to the right album at the right time of day at the right time of year; such was the case with Jon Fletcher’s debut “A Month In The Summer” – sunshine and showers during a summer holiday morning. This fine collection of mostly self-penned songs in the English folk style (with occasional diversions into jazz and unclassifiable) are sung in Fletcher’s soulful voice. The songs begin light and folky, but then on “Ghost Of A Town” a divine strings arrangement comes along and the album takes a leap from good to really good. The arrangements on all the songs are terrific; the aforementioned strings, double bass and drums, and flute and harmonica making occasional appearances, but all the while you are listening to that voice, and those hazy English lyrics. An assured debut, and one for repeated summer listens.” TERRASCOPE.CO.UK August 08
“Jon’s is one of those names that will be only peripherally familiar: he was a founder member of Epona alongside Nancy Kerr and siblings Kate and Colin (the latter now works with Van Eyken), and he’s now with Magpie Lane, but as this neat little disc shows, he’s become an attractive, if quietly-spoken, singer songwriter in his own right. He draws his imagery from the natural world, and he possesses a craftsman-storyteller’s instinct, while allowing his intricately moulded guitar traceries to stay close to centre-stage. With the help of Kate Garrett (harmonium, flute, whistles), brother Colin (bass), Tom Hooper (drums), and melodious strings from Giles Lewin, Kathy Whitaker, Jane Griffiths and Barney Morse-Brown, Jon has created an atmospheric, if understated sound-world that’s ideally evocative of what he wryly describes as “the perfect English summertime I never had either”. After a rather undistinguished opening track, the disc really gets to cast its gentle spell, highlights coming with the chamber-Pentangle mode of Willow Song, the delicate poetry of Windfall, the luminous Stole The Ground and the migratory vision of Swallows (previously covered by Abbie Lathe). Perhaps the exceedingly languid, lazy Sleepy Nothing Kind Of Day is just a little too tongue-in-cheek, but on the other hand I really liked the swinging, jazzy insouciance of Hold My Breath, the wistful closer Hold Back The Tide has much of the air of Forever Changes, and Jon’s treatment of The Cuckoo (the only non-original on the disc) is neatly judged. This is rather an appealing album, even if I did sometimes wonder whether the proverbial curate’s egg fell out of its nest just a little too soon.” Netrhythms August 2008