Hendrix Songs

Now here's an intriguing notion: a founding member of the much-loved folk big band Bellowhead reinterprets 12 classic Jimi Hendrix tracks, accompanying himself only on bouzouki, banjo and mandolin. Stripping back the layers of electric guitar and psychedelia, says the lifelong Hendrix fan, is ‘about exposing his skill as a songwriter, which is often overlooked.’ Graciously, he also admits that he realised that imitating Hendrix is futile, something he first discovered as a 12-year-old with a new electric guitar.

Broadly speaking, it all works rather well and certainly sidesteps the obvious danger of sounding like a busker tormenting your favourite tunes. Album opener ‘Angel’ and closer ‘Little Wing’ have always been clearly pretty melodies but it comes as quite a pleasant surprise to hear, for instance, ‘Voodoo Child (Slight Return)’ or ‘Burning of the Midnight Lamp’ stripped of all of their Sturm und Drang. The album sags a bit midway through unfortunately, with ‘Red House’ and ‘Hear My Train A Comin’: the Hendrix versions always worked in an already-stripped down state anyway, while ‘May This be Love’, curiously enough, sounds a little like a lost Beatles demo from around the same time.