I picked up Silver Liner by Ethan Johns at a Salvation Army shop in Hove. They had about 20 copies of it, all shrink-wrapped. I think it was three disks for a pound, so it seemed rude not to get one.

The first time I ever heard of Ethan Johns name was on the first track of Ryan Adams’s album Heartbreaker. The track is called “(Argument with David Rawlings Concerning Morrissey)” and is a discussion about which album a certain Morrissey track is on. They are just about to launch into a song when they suddenly stop as Ethan has a mouth full of cookies. Ethan was producing the album. He has produced everyone from Whiskeytown to Tom Jones, by way of Joe Cocker and Laura Marling. Not surprisingly his father was Glyn Johns who worked with everyone from the Rolling Stones to Neil Young.

Browsing the back cover I saw it featured BJ Cole on pedal steel guitar and Gillian Welch, presumably on backing vocals. It would be quicker to list who BJ hasn’t worked with and I am a big fan of Gillian, so that sealed the deal.

The album? If you are a fan of Ryan Adams then you will like it. He practically created alt.country and this is very much in that vein. There are some rockers (the title track), some mid-tempo ones (Sun Hardly Rises and I’m Coming Home) and some slow ones (Juanita). Mainly it has a bit of a downbeat vibe.

On Discogs