James Elkington shares ‘Wading The Vapors’ via NPR

By Simon Anders

On May 4, 2017

In News

JAMES ELKINGTON

Shares new track ‘Wading The Vapours’

Debut solo record Wintres Woma due 30 June

via Paradise of Bachelors

Listen to ‘Wading The Vapours’ here

James Elkington is set to release his debut solo record, Wintres Woma, on 30 June via Paradise of Bachelors. An Englishman living in Chicago, Elkington has been dubbed “guitar king” by The FADER and now shares “Wading The Vapors” via NPR who wrote: “‘Wading The Vapors’ unfolds like thick fog. […] it’s a song meant for the end of the night, inspired by the pubs of [James’] hometown”. The song showcases an astounding solo from cellist and composer Tomeka Reid.

James Elkington explains more about the song: “The village I come from is mostly hills and pubs. As teenagers, my friends and I would climb the hills and cycle through these pubs in the span of a couple of weeks. One place lay at the other end of a half-wild, unlit area of woods called “the common,” an area populated nightly by juvenile glue-sniffers and middle-aged dog-walkers. The drunken walks back from this pub as the fog rolled in over the common were weird and unsettling in the best way, and I tried to pull all of that into “Wading The Vapors.”

Songwriter and guitarist Elkington is an inveterate collaborator who has toured, recorded, and/or collaborated with Jeff Tweedy, Richard Thompson, Steve Gunn, Joan Shelley and most recently Tortoise, amongst others. His assured debut, Wintres Woma—Old English for “the sound of winter”— draws from British folk, avant-rock, and jazz traditions alike. The title resonates in the icy limpidity of the arrangements, the snowy tumble of guitars and strings, and with his gnawing consideration of how much cultural upbringing can bring to bear on one’s own creativity. Many of the album’s lyrics contend with the continuing strangeness of living in a different country. Recorded at Wilco’s Loft, it’s baroquely detailed and beautifully constructed, featuring both Elkington’s baritone vocals and some of Chicago’s finest musicians.

“With Wintres Woma, Elkington finds the space between fire and smoke, tangling complex fingerpicking into quiet, glowing melodies.” —NPR Music