The gestation for this album has been a difficult one. Booker was having trouble finding inspiration, as well as his songwriting mojo, which worked a treat on his blistering debut album three years ago. "By February of 2016, I realised I was a songwriter with no songs, unable to piece together any words that wouldn't soon be plastered on the side of a paper aeroplane," he wrote in an essay about Witness, the new album, and the struggles to get it off the ground. He travelled to Mexico, found some peace and solitude, and started writing again. But, in the manner of one of his main inspirations, the writer-activist James Baldwin (who had similarly left the US to live in Europe for a while), Booker had an epiphany. Already fired up by Black Lives Matter (an international activist movement that campaigns against violence and systemic racism against black people), a moment of racism towards him in Mexico settled it for him. In that same essay, Booker quoted Baldwin: "Once you find yourself in another civilization," he observed, "you're forced to examine your own."

Witness is a collection of ten personal songs which reflect many of the issues affecting young black Americans, wrapped in intense self scrutiny on the part of Booker. Issues of isolation, motivation, and moral rectitude inform throughout, as do more personal relationships. He seems troubled somewhat, looking for the answers before he's able to open up with others. The song format remains a way of expressing; articulating troubles, doubts, concerns, love and devotion. And maybe it's a necessary outlet for Booker to open up. Whatever the answer, Witness represents a major artistic success for Booker, who has inched away from the punkish tirades of his debut for some detours to old school soul and gospel, an area he has previously expressed much interest in.

But he's not entirely ditched the hard guitar altogether, particulaly on opener 'Right On You', which begins as a space rock assault, before the song explodes in a fire of rocking glam, as Booker sings: "So, I start selfish on my own / I'll be damned if I don't get what I want," little electric licks here and there, providing further sparks on this headlong punk rush of a track. It's a statement of intent, a self-righteous call to living and loving. Elsewhere he pushes the glam pedal on the turbo-charged 'Off The Ground' after a slow acoustic dirge beginning that doesn't hint at the speed to come.

Almost everywhere else, Booker sinks his teeth into a retro sound, helped along by engineer Shawn Everett, who has won an award for his work with 'trailblazing' retro-soul rockers Alabama Shakes. Perhaps most interesting is the title track itself, a gospel-orientated number that features the queen of gospel activism herself, Mavis Staples. Could he, as Staples sings in the album's title track, go on being "just a witness?", whether as an outsider living in another country (Mexico) or as a bystander, unwilling to get properly involved and active. For Booker, 2017 contains the seeds and echoes of the civil rights activism of the 50s and 60s. No way is he going to be just a witness. The final track, the relatively freewheeling experimentation of 'All Was Well' coalesces these thoughts into some kind of enlightenment, and primed for action: "Built around the truth to keep it secret / Made excuses all my life until I just believed it / Believed that all was well… If I have my way / I'll tear this building down"

The personal with the political is mixed up on Witness, and there are a number of tracks that are devoted to relationships, in particular the trouble he seems to be having in keeping them healthy and vibrant; his lack of motivation in particular. On ‘The Slow Drag Under' Booker's super raspy vocal (that recalls Ben Ottewell of Gomez fame) is even more hoarse sounding than ever, as he struggles with staying mentally afloat, but expressing this in a bleary-eyed languid fashion, beautifully offset against a glammed up classic 12 bar blues. And there's alienation aplenty on 'Truth is Heavy'; plucked electric guitar, brushed drums, deep bass notes, and some terrific warped chord action populate another languid track that has both latent menace and energy.

Booker is a fine guitarist, but he never lets flair get in the way of a good song, utilising licks and shapes here and there without overwhelming the tracks, all of which are short and sweet, some of them nudging pure pop territory such as the uplifting string-infused old school soul/rock of 'Believe' and the Alabama Shakes style retroism of 'Overtime', both songs concerning motivation: "You could have it all if you just try harder / make it to the end without going under."

Although it's on the Lennonesque/Plastic Ono Band hard-hitting piano and drum minimalism of 'Carry', there's a weight on the shoulders of Booker that he just doesn't quite seem able to shake off: "I'm just asking for order / Begging for wisdom / Pleading for something to alleviate all of the doubt."

I'll guess we'll have to wait for album number three to see if any of this has been resolved. But in the meantime, Booker lays it bare for all to see, and it is by turns beautiful and ugly. It's deep from the soul and yet we can all pretty much relate to everything expressed here.
Jeff Hemmings

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