Ryan Francesconi: Parables – review

The acoustic guitar carries with it so much cultural baggage that it's refreshing to hear it almost anew, unencumbered by its association with mewling singer-songwriters. Ryan Francesconi was Joanna Newsom's band leader and arranger on Have One on Me , her triple album of last year. This solo offering under his own name finds him alone with an acoustic, playing stern, searching instrumental tracks that own up to influences such as Malian kora music – a fetish he shares with Newsom – the Balkans, Greece and beyond. The packaging suggests high seriousness, but these eight questing tracks radiate a kind of eloquent calm that recalls fellow guitar travellers such as James Blackshaw.