Songs to stir the senses and melt the heart: Jon Fletcher’s gently soulful voice and sparkling acoustic playing weave strands of English folk, blues, jazz and classic songwriting into a compelling and original take on the troubadour tradition. Jon draws on a wealth of experience in the field of folk and acoustic roots music. A founder member late 90s roots-pop outfit Epona (alongside siblings Kate & Colin Fletcher, and fiddler Nancy Kerr), he has since lent his instrumental skills to a number of singer-songwriters including Lisa Fitzgibbon, Matt Sage and Sharron Kraus, and is a member of Oxfordshire folk sextet Magpie Lane. A Month in the Summer is Jon’s solo debut, and spins tales of love, longing, lazy days, Monday mornings and migratory birds to evoke, as Jon wryly puts it, “the perfect English summer I never had either”. These are finely-crafted songs that combine a storyteller’s instinct with imagery drawn from the natural world and a quietly-spoken understanding of the human heart. With Jon's understated vocals and intricate guitar-work centre stage, the dramatic instrumental arrangements feature a fine cast of supporting musicians: double bass / bass guitar from brother and long-time collaborator Colin Fletcher (also of Van Eyken); drummer Tom Hooper; harmonium, flute and whistles from Kate Garrett, and sublime strings from fiddler Jane Griffiths, with Kathy Whitaker, Giles Lewin (Bellowhead/ The Carnival Band) and cellist Barney M Brown (The Imagined Village). Largely recorded live in the studio with minimal overdubs- the bulk of the recording taking place over a bank holiday weekend- A Month in the Summer is an assured debut, taking in its vision the atmospheric folk of Willow Song and trad standard The Cuckoo, the jazzy swing of Hold my Breath and the widescreen nostalgia of Hold Back the Tide. "Gently attractive; a definite grower" fRoots "It's also an album with a sense of it's self. Fletcher has an edge to his voice that adds to the sense of drama, almost with an actor's quality as he captures the emphasis within the words and tune" FATEA "Draws on the best of English troubadour traditions, with beautiful fingerstyle guitar and heartfelt songs" OXFORD TIMES "The arrangements on all the songs are terrific; strings, double bass and drums, and flute and harmonica making occasional appearances, but all the while you are listening to that voice, and those hazy English lyrics. An assured debut, and one for repeated summer listens." TERRASCOPE.CO.UK