April 8th 2004 Jez Luton

Last Monday I was privileged to see Jez Luton in concert at the 'Boathouse' country music club, Stapenhill. He gave such an impressive performance, i was keen to see him again and he did not disappoint.

 Jez is from Cornwall and currently on a mini tour of the midlands. His roots are with Folk music and he has been singing/playing Country music for only two years. Nevertheless he has acquired a wide range of country songs and penned several of his own to boot.

He is smartly dressed and his clear strong voice and virtuoso guitar playing soon win over his audience. From the first note of 'Lone Star State of Mind' the dancers were on their feet and the listeners quickly realised an extraordinary talent was before them. Jez has spent most of his musical carreer playing acoustic guitar, in fact he has accompanied the International Folk singer, Tom Paxton, on numerous occasions, and confesses to "Still getting used to the electric". It's hard to see how he can get any better!

 His programme included plenty of George Jones, Randy Travis, George Strait etc.The dancers especially enjoyed The Mavericks and Mark Knopfler songs. However, three songs not heard before at our club were received particularly well - 'Baby's Left Me For A Line Dancer', a self composition,' The Hard Shoulder of Love' which he co-wrote with Bob Evans, a friend from Leicester, and a Cornish folk song 'The White Rose', which he dedicated to a friend.

 The very high standard of the first song was maintained throughout the night up to the final Steve Earle number 'Sometimes She Forgets'.

  I can only hope that Jez Luton makes his way from Cornwall to the Midlands again.     

   Cyril Insley. Top