The 11 tracks on Jason McNiff’s Nobody’s Son are subtly beautiful. Flanked by members of Grand Drive and the Hank Dogs, McNiff abandons the electric-guitar solo and cymbal crash for a more understated approach featuring a variety of acoustic arrangements and mysterious subject matter.
In a hushed, gravelly voice that assumes a thinner, nasal tone when confronted with an ascending melody, McNiff surrounds much of the album with the dark lyrical themes commonly associated with the British folk scene he came from. Songs like “Weeping Willows Weep” and “Half Drunk” (with the line, “I’m half drunk, you’re half sober / We’ve got nothing to talk about”) sound like they’re borrowed from a distant time and place.
“I Remember You” is the record’s undeniable darling. Here, McNiff picks up where Mermaid Avenue left off, offering seven minutes of finger-picking nostalgia in an undeclared tribute to Woody Guthrie. For McNiff, “I Remember You,” like every song on “Nobody’s Son,” is a show of faith in his music and his audience. While many are compelled to alter their songs in some way to gain wider acceptance, McNiff trusts that his songs are what they’re supposed to be and that his listeners will appreciate them, whether they understand them or not. Historically, confidence like this has done a lot for music, and it does a lot for Jason McNiff on Nobody’s Son.