Winds Of Change

From the personal lyrics to the focus on the acoustic guitar, Peter Jones has gone back to basics with his latest Tiger Moth Tales album, The Turning Of The World. But as the multi-instrumentalist and vocalist tells Prog, it's an album that he needed to write.

- Chris Cope

“I ’ve been saying to everybody, and I probably should stop saying it because it’s probably going to put some people off… but it’s not the proggiest album that I’ve done,” says Tiger Moth Tales mainman Peter Jones somewhat sheepishly about his new record, The Turning Of The World. “But it was just an album I felt I had to write.”

Sometimes, needs must. With lyrics often focusing on the rudimental topic of coming to terms with the constant cogs of change, and songwriting that stemmed from the six strings of an acoustic guitar rather than any elaborate keyboard wizardry, it’s fair to say Tiger Moth Tales’ eighth album merits the stripped-back tag despite being labelled the “companion” to 2020’s The Whispering Of The World.

While prog fans with a penchant for pandemonium may feel a little left out of the party, the brain-gnawingly catchy tunes and smooth melodies, mixed with just enough out-the-box thinking and divergence, sees Tiger Moth Tales at their most impactful yet.

Well, take the term ‘their’ lightly; Jones wrote, recorded and produced everything, sang and played every instrument – guitar, keys, drums, whistles, sax and more. The only outside input are Robert Reed and Christina

Booth’s backing vocals on the yearning We’ll Remember, which is a tribute to the late Big Big Train vocalist, and Jones’ previous collaborator, David Longdon.

“I have had a couple of guest players in the past, guest performers, and I’ve had guest writers on a couple of the albums,” Jones says, down the line from his home in Nottinghamshire. “But this was all me. I wanted to go back to writing with a guitar, because back in the distant days before [2014 debut solo album]