What do you say we cut teenagers some slack?
They get a lot of stick these days, if not for perpetuating the sparkly vampire craze, then for having Justin ‘Kick Me’ Bieber among their ranks or impregnating each other on a whim. Pish and posh and syrup-soaked waffle, the lot of it.
Especially in the face of a talent like Jake Bugg.
He’s from a tiny village in Nottingham, a city which has played a ‘pretty big role in my songwriting’ Jake has told the Live4ever Ezine. He learned to play guitar aged 12, and he was writing songs by the time he was 13. “So what?” you say. “That gnome with the whitened teeth started young too.” Well, we’re not talking about some auto-tuned dribble like ‘ Baby’. Anyone who has songs like ‘Saffron‘ or ‘Something Wrong‘ in them isn’t going to just give up at that.
‘Trouble Town‘ is one of those blues in E that races along just fast enough to make you never want to stop dancing. For those who don’t do musical notes, think the Stones’ ‘Not Fade Away‘, Elvis’ ‘Mystery Train‘ or Johnny Cash’s signature ‘Folsom Prison Blues‘.
Bugg keeps it simple, letting his guitar buzz and rattle, the way a properly huge acoustic guitar is supposed to. “To be honest I just recorded the song the day I had written it and the label said they loved it,” Jake reveals to Live4ever, outlining further the sense of sonic ease which underpins the track.
He knows what the blues are just as well as The Animals did, or John Lee Hooker before them. “I don’t think age matters as long as you have a love for the blues,” Jake tells us.
He’s 17 years old. So was Steve Marriott when the Small Faces were formed, and there’s a lot of Marriott’s yearning, bluesy swagger in Bugg’s voice, an instrument that’s already developing a signature tone. Some crafty production on his voice lends it an almost ‘rediscovered vinyl’ quality, an illusion the front cover is doing nothing to dispel.
So he’s borrowing a little vintage style. What of it? Bluesmen have been borrowing off each other since W.C. Handy first heard a black man play slide guitar with a penknife, all the way back in 1903. Nearly a hundred years later, ‘Trouble Town’ stands on its own two feet as one of those songs that make you turn up the radio and say “Who’s this?”, only to be answered with a clip around the ear, because you are interrupting the song.
David Bowie was 19 when he hit the radio with ‘Can’t Help Thinking About Me‘. Cat Stevens was 18 when ‘I Love My Dog‘ first caught the public ear. ‘Trouble Town’ is the kind of song that marks a beginning. The beginning of what, who the hell knows? Predictions are for stock brokers and Mystic Meg.
Listen for yourself, then you can start playing with tarot cards or crystal balls or whatever else you keep beside your record player. Just listen.
(Words: Simon Moore & Dave Smith)
Jake Bugg is out on tour in the UK next month. Details can be found over on his official Facebook page.