Consumer Guide Album

Jon Langford & the Men of Gwent: President of Wales [Country Mile, 2019]
Native Welshman turned Leeds-spawned Mekons frontman turned Chicago-based songster and painter gives his roots a shot of local color and a dose of celebrity by hooking up with a band from the same hometown where he nearly drowned as a child in the swimming pool of the long-abandoned swimming pool of Bulmore Lido, now filled with stones as the song of that title reports more dolefully than you might expect from someone who almost died there. Other songs honor local busker Frankie Lodge, dead at 90 in 2019, and the title antihero, who for some reason wonders why he can't go home again after 400 Welsh citizens "living in the home of the vote" died of HIV-infected blood transfusions. B+