The John Jenkins Songbook Vol 1: Too Many Roads

It wasn't too long ago that songwriter and performer John Jenkins released his most recent record, Restless Hearts. When the album was released, word spread quickly, and it was reviewed by a multitude of magazines, featured on numerous playlists, and received plenty more attention.

The album is a beautifully woven set of songs that are personal and serve as chapters in his life.

As the record was getting ready for release, John came up with the idea of a different version of the record. A version with other artists covering his tracks in their own original and distinct styles, so that they are reimagined and recreated in an original sense.

He put the word out via social media and other platforms, and soon enough, artists started to step forward.

What came of it is a brand-new record called John Jenkins Songbook, Volume 1: Too Many Roads, which is an alternative take on his Restless Hearts record.

The outcome is absolutely outstanding as the artists and bands gathering together to recreate these songs certainly do give their own spin, aesthetic, and atmosphere to the track that we're already honest, storytelling, and robust.

Throughout the unfolding of the album, you have everything from blues, Indie pop, dream pop, acoustic singer-songwriter, and songs that even come through full-bodied and lush.

It's incredible how these artists were able to give such a unique approach and aesthetic to the songs that already had this great impact in storytelling and authenticity, and songwriting to begin with.

One of my favorite tracks on this record is "The Disappearance", which comes through as a very cinematic, vast, and expansive single that balances a line between something theatrical and cinematic, while remaining poetic and with a gorgeous, flowing overtone.

This one was by Helen Flunder & Brendan Perkins, and together they really reprised this song in such a gorgeous way that you just get engulfed by it.

Among others are songs like "Never Needed Much", performed by Rob Cast, which definitely gives that theatrical undertone and feel so stripped down and bare at certain points that you just pay so much attention to the emotion behind the vocal performance along with those lyrics.

Others include "The Not Knowing" performed by Mel Reeves and Julie Meikle.

This track has a beautifully performed jazz underbelly to it, and the guitar work here is outstanding because it reshapes the original song in such a unique fashion, but still holds on to the original in certain aspects.

A lot of these tracks tend to stay close to the original performances keeping that sort of folk, Americana, and Southern touched undertone evident and on the upfront While others take complete different directions, so it was beautiful to see and hear so many different approaches to the original record and I'm sure that John himself was pretty blown away once it was all put together and he was able to sit back to listen to everything.

What's even cooler about this whole thing is that there are secondary versions of tracks throughout this record, meaning there are multiple songs covered twice by different bands.

Again, each one has something different to bring to the table, and although some are more familiar to John's original tonalities, some are not, and I just found the whole thing very enticing.

Maybe this is because I know the original album so well, which is something you should go check out too.

This record spans 19 tracks and features as many artists. Again, certain tracks are covered more than once by two different artists or bands, but this still gives different life to those tracks, and each cover of a particular song is completely different from the next.

Definitely check this record out as soon as you can because there's a lot to soak in here. Brilliant layers, amazing portrayals, and performances of some solid songwriting that still showcase some of the heart and sentiment that the originals came from.

The record is available right now, so check it out and remember where you heard it first.

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