Album title: Needless Alley

Release date: 19 September 2025

Jon Wilks – singer, songwriter, folk advocate and “badman fingerpicking guitarist” (Carl Barat, The Libertines) – returns with his third album Needless Alley, which will be released on 19^th September and accompanied by a series of live dates through October into November 2025.

“Jon Wilks is someone who pulls off that niftiest of tricks – paying due homage to the traditions whilst sounding original and contemporary.” Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2

Rooted in themes of memory, time and place, with a strong current of nostalgia, Needless Alley has been a long time in the making. All but one of the ten songs are original; some begun decades ago, others only a few months old, and yet they all come together as if they belong, joined by some invisible thread. Wilks refers to the album as a patchwork of memories, “what you’d find if you rummaged around in my head for an afternoon.” Both lyrically and sonically, it looks back at the sounds Wilks connected with in his teens, shaped by early songwriting instincts and formative band experiences. However, with influences including Nick Drake, The Pentangle, Paul Simon and other folk luminaries the album never strays too far from the folk music he’s become known for. The title and title track relate to a street in Birmingham, Wilks’s home city, on which he used to busk as a teenager. While the album is not Birmingham-specific, the title track highlights the themes that run throughout.

He is accompanied by his regular band The Grizzly Folk who are: Jon Nice (keyboards, guitars, backing vocals), Rich Davies (bass), and Laurence Hunt (drums, percussion). The album also features guests from across the folk spectrum – including Jackie Oates, Ellie Gowers, Nick Hart and Tamsin Elliott – and was produced by Wilks and Joe Sartin and mastered by Nick Cooke.

“Jon Wilks is the real deal. He has a deep love for folk music which is coupled with intelligence, curiosity and musicianship. He is a fine guitar player, a really good singer and an excellent writer to boot.” Martin Simpson

Needless Alley is a backstreet that runs through central Birmingham and was the home to Swordfish Records when Wilks was a late-teen. Listening to Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, Wilks wondered what might happen on Needless Alley and thus the lilting, title song was born. You’ll Do Right By Me is probably the oldest song of Wilks’ on the album, begun when he was barely 20 years old and sung between Bert Jansch and Davey Graham covers in a North Wales folk club where he used to perform in return for beer and cigarettes. Strung Out on the Line, a co-write with Ellie Gowers, who also guests on the track, reflects on the stories we tell ourselves about the past – “memories of memories” – and the lingering pull of what’s gone. Could You Be The One? grew from a melody and guitar part that had pestered Wilks for months. Fragmented lyrics offer a less narrative style than the rest of the album – a snapshot of images and scenes. Willow, the only instrumental on the album, is a beautiful, gentle track featuring Wilks’ solo guitar inspired by a family member gone too soon. The only non-original song on the album, Montagu Whaler, was written in the latter half of the 20^th century by Nigel “Bernie” Bruen, which Wilks first heard on a folk club tape in the Roy Palmer archives, sung by Shep Woolley. A Montagu whaler was a boat used by the Royal Navy from 1900s to 1960s. Few seaworthy examples remain today, but thanks to Wilks’ version of the song Portsmouth Historic Shipyards have begun restoration of one of theirs.

Wilks has previously been known for his renditions of traditional English folk songs and broadside ballads, often specialising in traditional folk songs from Birmingham and the wider Midlands (of which he has recorded two albums, 2018’s Midlife and 2021’s Up the Cut), so Needless Alley marks a shift – a personal musical journey built on friendship, place and the songs that shape individual experiences. With a career that has spanned journalism and teaching, music has always been a constant. Described by The Quietus as being “at the centre of the current folk scene”, Jon Wilks was named by Guitarist Magazine as “One to Watch” in 2022. He regularly appears on Radio 2’s The Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe, including a live session in 2023. Alongside Campbell Baum, founder of Broadside Hacks, he is also co-curating of The Life and Songs of Martin Carthy, a major concert honouring one of British folk’s most influential figures that will see live performances by Billy Bragg, Graham Coxon, Peggy Seeger and others alongside Wilks and Carthy on 27^thSeptember 2025 at EartH, London.