C Joynes

C Joynes

C Joynes is an English acoustic guitarist based in Cambridge. He releases self-produced CDRs and also appears on Bo’ Weavil. His work uses a heavy thumb-led finger-picking style that draws on traditional country-blues and early ragtime, while also exploring other musical traditions and approaches.

Style and approach

Joynes’ playing takes in English folk tune, North and West African music, elements of classical Indian music, and proto-minimalist and impressionist strands from European classical music. His recording and composition methods often include collaged fragments, field recordings, processing, recordings made outdoors, and cut-and-paste techniques.

Reworking existing material

He often reworks familiar pieces, stripping away what he treats as cliché and presenting them in a new context. Examples include a version of “Since I Lay My Burden Down” that uses variations on lyrics and vocal lines from another song, as well as his arrangements of “Christmas Medley”, “A Night In Tunisia”, and the gospel-based “And When The Sun Begins To Shine”.

Musical character

His music is described as instinctive, carefully researched, placid, and marked by a sense of simplicity and naivety.