I Keep It To Myself The Best Of

Continuing his association with the reactivated Chess imprint, the label that issued so many of the tunes that inspired him in his youth, I Keep It To Myself - The Best Of Wilko Johnson draws together 25 tracks recorded between 2008 and 2012 by the legendary guitarist and songwriter with backing largely provided by Norman Watt-Roy (bass) and Dylan Howe (drums), the same rhythm section that performed on Wilko's enormously successful 'Going Back Home' album with Roger Daltrey.

He's unlike any other musician, Wilko. If you have the good fortune to see him in the flesh, watch his hands (not his plectrum) chopping out mean riffs, chopping out brutal guitar solos, as he moves constantly, towards the crowd and away from the crowd; towards the crowd and away from the crowd. Like his music - in motion, always. Songs rarely reach the three-minute mark. But by the time they're finished you know you've been to a gig.

The Strangler Jean Jacques Burnel said of his former outfit Dr Feelgood: 'I often say to journalists there is a bridge between the old times and the punk times. That bridge is exclusively The Feelgoods, it allowed us to go from one thing to another. That's the connection, the DNA.'