Jon Boden - Painted Lady (2016)

On September 30th 2016, Navigator Records will re-issue Jon Boden's debut solo album, Painted Lady (originally released on Soundpost Records in 2006) to mark its 10th anniversary. The album will be available as a CD, 180gm vinyl and download and features previously unavailable bonus tracks.

Jon is still best known as lead singer (and principle arranger) of the multi-award winning big band Bellowhead. During the band's 12 years they achieved an unrivalled level of critical and commercial success, playing on virtually every major stage around the UK. Jon decided to stand down in 2015 and on 1st May 2016 Bellowhead played their final gig.

Chicago born, Winchester raised and now residing in rural South Yorkshire, Boden is not only a leading performer of his generation of folk artists but also one whose repertoire extends far beyond the boundaries of a single genre. For over a decade, Jon was in a highly acclaimed traditional folk music duo with melodeon player John Spiers. Together they toured and recorded with Eliza Carthy, appearing on her Mercury Prize nominated album. In 2009 Boden formed The Remnant Kings with whom he recorded his second album, 'Songs from the Floodplain', painting a compelling, post-apocalyptic world.

(Almost) entirely self-penned, Jon Boden's first solo album, 'Painted Lady' is a work of considerable ambition and originality that will surprise those expecting a version of Bellowhead's full-on, euphoric energy. The album features 12 songs written by Boden and is especially notable for its dazzling array of instrumentation, including fiddle, octave fiddle, concertina, banjo, guitars, double bass, Indian harmonium, glockenspiel, electric piano, and perhaps more unusually for a folk artist, Moog synthesiser and drum machine all of which are played by Jon Boden. There's even Jon's low-fi interpretation of a Whitney Houston classic, 'I Wanna Dance (with Somebody)'.