On Wintres Woma, guitarist James Elkington reemerges at age 46 as an acoustic fingerpicking hero with a proper solo debut—an album that is at once beautiful, complex, and assured. Where plenty of guitarists have rediscovered themselves in the transition from electric bands to acoustic-minded singledom, such as Pelt’s Jack Rose and Cul de Sac’s Glenn Jones, Elkington stands apart among the wave of 21st century guitar soloists. This kind of reinvention has typically involved an embrace of John Fahey’s school of American Primitivism. But the British-born Elkington is neither American nor primitive. And while some of Elkington’s peers have evolved by jumping to singing and songwriting, he was already writing smart songs with his rock band the Zincs. Since that band dissolved a decade ago, Elkington has been an instrumental sideman for Steve Gunn, Jeff Tweedy, and Richard Thompson [ . . . ] More at – Pitchfork