Clayton Denwood is a singer-songwriter – and first-rate musician – whose work easily bears comparison to his great predecessors in that shining line: his fellow Canadian Leonard Cohen, for one; or another boy from the North Country, Bob Dylan. Indeed, Clayton honed his musical chops for years down in Woodstock with some of Dylan’s old comrades like Levon Helm, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko. He also worked the proving grounds in the clubs of New York City, Montreal, Toronto & London.

But what he puts across – with a band of top-flight players – is a unique sound and sensibility that’s all his own. Now based in Bristol & Bath the new music mines a deep vibe that draws in – and draws upon – everything from straight-up blues to bright folk-rock (that “wild, thin mercury sound”) to brooding, improvisational riffs in a Grateful Dead mode.