Taking a step away from the Birmingham songs that brought him recognition on his previous two collections. Jon Wilk’s fourth solo album Before I Knew What Had Begun I Had Already Lost,  focuses instead on the songs that have moved him most over the last few, difficult years.

Still heavily focused on lesser-known traditional songs, the acclaimed guitarist and singer includes three compositions of his own, and brings together a collection of musicians that he has grown to love playing with. “While I adore researching and arranging Midlands songs”, Wilks explains, “this album grew out of a different place. Just before I started recording it, I fell quite seriously ill and ended up spending three months at home. I spent a lot of time picking away at the guitar, trying different tunings, and then Martin Simpson showed up with a 5-string banjo and prescribed ‘banjo therapy’.  Music and friends were a great help, and these songs and musicians kind of coalesced during that time.”

Aside from Martin Simpson’s banjo, the album sees Wilks renewing friendships young and old. He has worked for over a decade with keyboardist, Jon Nice, so it’s no surprise to find him here. The pair first worked with Lukas Drinkwater on their well-loved Nick Drake covers during lockdown, when Katherine Priddy joined them on vocals  “Those sessions formed a kind of sonic template for this album”, says Wilks.  “I was keen to explore their organic simplicity further, and I think you can hear that on some of these recordings.”

Drinkwater makes a welcome return on this record. The album also sees Wilks recording with Jackie Oates, with whom he has recently begun performing as a duo.“We first met when I supported her in about 2018, and we hit it off straight away. I helped out on her recent album, Gracious Wings, and then we started playing together more often around the time our mutual friend, Paul Sartin, died. ‘Haymaking Song’, on this album, is a traditional song local to where Paul and I got to know each other, and we used to play it together whenever we had a chance. We never got around to recording together, though, so I hummed Paul’s fiddle parts – as best I remembered them – to Jackie, and that’s largely what she’s playing here. I hope we got it right.”

The album title comes from a line in Wilks’ own ‘Greek Street’. “That lyric, along with the rest of the song, fell out in a single sitting. It could be interpreted as quite a melancholy thing to say, but I think it comes from my tendency to throw myself wholeheartedly into things, whether that’s relationships, work, art or anything else. Take traditional music, for instance. Before I knew what had happened, I was in up to my chin!”

The First single released from the album is Johnny Sands, says Jon: “I found this in Cole’s Funniest Song Book in the World (1891). It had no tune, so I set off to look for other recordings, eventually finding Martin Carthy’s version. I caught up with him backstage at FolkEast in 2022 and we sang it together. The tune, he told me, was ‘The Liverpool Landlady’, while the singalong chorus was his own invention. He really is the master.” 

Trad, arr Wilks. Chorus by Martin Carthy. Roud 184

May 12th, Burton-On Trent Folk Club
May 13th, West End Centre, Aldershot
May 15th, Kitchen Garden Cafe, Birmingham
May 16th, Temperance, Leamington Spa
May 17th, Green Note, Camden, London
May 18th, All Hallows, Whitchurch, Hampshire
May 19th, Downend Folk & Roots, Bristol
May 20th, Bridport Folk Society
May 22nd, The Prince Albert, Stroud
May 25th, Cafe #9, Sheffield
May 27th, The Globe, Newcastle
May 28th, Hyde Park Folk Club, Leeds

“One of the best of the New Wave of Folk Blokes. As a guitar player and arranger of traditional songs, Jon Wilks already deserves speaking of in the same breath as your Simpsons and your Morays.” –  fRoots Mag