JUST DOING MY PART at The Last Candle

John Wesley is, almost without peer, my favorite singer-songwriter. I discovered him during my first Porcupine Tree concert back in October ‘05, when he played lead guitar for the band, a regular for the position as I found on subsequent concerts earlier this year. After seeing his excellent technique live, I picked up his most recent album, Shiver, and thoroughly enjoyed the deft and significant rock-pop instrumentals, the skillful guitar hooks and harmonies, and Wesley’s thoughtful, poetic lyrics delivered through a fine set of pipes — John’s voice, that is.

I’ve actually had two happy occasions of meeting the man himself, both times while chumming around with the band after Porcupine Tree shows. The first time I met him I didn’t even know his name, let alone know that he actually didn’t perform in the studio for the Porcupine Tree album he signed. By the second meeting that occurred this past May in Cleveland, not only did I know his name well, but I had one of his solo albums ready for a signature. He seemed pretty happy that he was able to sign something of his own, honestly.

Like most musicians these days, Wes has a MySpace page. Having that page in itself is not extraordinary, but the “Share the Wes” program is: along the left sidebar of his page, Wesley has made available to download for free all of his full studio albums.

Of course, the albums don’t contain CD quality cuts, but hey, the musicianship is, without a doubt, excellent. And it’s free, dammit. Prior to seeing the “Share the Wes” program, I owned all of Wes’ albums except The Emperor Falls. One day of listening to the downloadable package of that album, and the order was in — the album is on its way to my door.

As one fan’s way of showing some moderate appreciation, below is a player featuring six favorite Wesley tracks of mine. I’ve included at least one track from each album — of course, each album contains plenty of other good stuff — and the player pops out of the browser for ease-of-use.

But why don’t you just go download the music and check the man out in full? Do it for good music.