Back in print on vinyl. Jonathan Wilson's debut solo album, Gentle Spirit is not simply the name of the album by songwriter / musician / producer Wilson, it also represents the ethos of the artist himself. Warm, supple melodies etched in layers of stringed instruments and willowy organ motifs accompany his earnest, North Carolinian drawl as he tells tales of humane values lost and found. Wilson produced the record which features Gary Louris of Jayhawks, Vetiver's Andy Cabic and Otto Hauser, pedal steeler Josh Grange, Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson and their organist Adam Mcdougal and many more class musicians. Wilson's music is steeped equally in the woodsy contours of his blue ridge experiences and the atmospheric guitar reveries of Neil Young and Quicksilver Messenger Sservice. In fact, Gentle Spirit, an expansive double vinyl set recorded direct to analog tape using Wilson's 1972 console that used to belong to Shelter Records, is remarkably evocative of that golden late '60s, early '70s period when rural and urban sensibilities colluded in producing some of rock's most imperishable recordings. The album features all original Wilson compositions with the exception of his psyched out rendition of Gordon Lightfoot's The Way I Feel.
