JACKIE LEVEN Gothic Road (2010 UK 12-track CD album - The music on 'Gothic Road' provides cast iron proof that the creative phenomenon that is Jackie Leven is not simply continuing to go from strength to strength, but is close to passing out of sight on a road that others fear to tread. Many of the songs are at once mystical but also locked in the daily grind of emotional survival. In keeping with his longstanding creative association with mavericks and outlaws [David Thomas, Johnny Dowd etc], Jackie collaborates here with fabled English renegade Ralph Mctell. Elsewhere on the album, Jackie fantasises about the creative dynamo that is actress Tilda Swinton, hides in his hotel mini bar from the tyranny of endless touring, sings a song written by the original punk poet Patrik Fitzgerald ['Shadow Of A Man'] and welcomes on board a guest recording by his co-producer, the great Welsh singer David Wrench ['Island']).