The Sun review ‘Cracked up’ **** four stars!
I am really pleased to see such a positive review in The Sun of ‘Cracked Up’, I didn’t expect to get four stars but am very happy about it!
‘The new old songs’ 2nd album is now live on Spotify and iTunes
My 2nd album ‘the new old songs’ is now available on all of the major online shops Spotify and iTunes
‘The new old songs’ is an album that was written in the early 2000’s and recorded in 2007 with Mark Reddy but they were never released, they sat on a hard drive gathering virtual dust for about a decade.
The songs are some that I am really pleased with and I think you may be too. The people on it were me, Simon Farrell on bass, David Lawless on drums, Mark Reddy stepped in to do a guitar solo on ‘woman that you are’, I simply had to have him put down some chops because I was a big fan of his when I was younger – I still am but I was back then too!
On that track Bazz also featured on bass, I don’t know his real name but will update with actual details if I ever find them out.
‘Cracked Up’ gets it’s first official review
I was pleased to see my new album get a review from an actual music critic (as opposed to a music fan with an opinion) in the Sunday Business Post on the 26th of March. Johnnie Craig was the person who did it, a big ‘thank you’ to him – we’ve never met – for being so frank and pulling no punches.
The review isn’t stellar, a first outing usually isn’t the best you’ll ever make, but what it does do is point out some of the strong points with a fair dosage of the albums weak points.
I’m a sucker for that line about it sounding like ‘sun-soaked, dusty, free-wheeling Americana‘, I couldn’t think of a better set of adjectives if you gave me a month and a good bottle of bourbon to go with it.
Follow on spotify
I hate having to shill my stuff, but any follows would be appreciated! Building up a following on Spotify is how I plan to get the music I make out to the public. Appreciate any support 🙂
Artist link here: spotify:artist:5VHfZek6scFXCS0lkbrKFz
Or use the player below
Time to get verified!
You can rely on time
I wrote a lot of songs in the time I’ve had, this is one from back around 2005 which I put down in a studio in 2007 and did a video of a year later. I never released the studio work but got the files and have had them remastered so they’ll be part of the 2nd album which is due out soon!
This is the stripped down, single take (that’s my codeword for ‘mistakes included/warts and all’), the studio version has the usual accompanying instruments in there.
New album ‘Cracked Up’ available on Spotify and iTunes
I’m very pleased to say that at last my first album is available on Spotify and on the iTunes store. Here’s the link to it on Spotify. I hope you will give it a listen and if you like it let me know (if you don’t like it you can let me know too but assume you’ll just listen to something else instead!).
Jawbone ‘Some time’
This is a tune by Jawbone who are (mainly) Philip O’Gorman and Philip Christie and Conor Deasy. They are a popular blues and old acoustic/jazz group in Dublin. I was up with them one day and recorded a piece where Brian MacGloin was on sound, the two Phil’s were on guitar and piano, I sat in on Double bass.
As I recall it was a one-take wonder choice and we didn’t get a chance to jam or anything so I was watching out for Phil O’Gorman to give me ‘the nod’ for where to stop and start! Those guys are just so good, I need to get back in with them some time and have a good ol’ jam.
Soldiers Joy (key D) by the Tin Box Company
This is another raw track of a zoom recorder placed near the speaker, I hope nobody can make out some of the internal band chat we do (mostly inappropriate and abusive towards fellow band members!).
This tune is ‘Soldiers Joy’ and a long running bluegrass favourite. In the first guitar break I tried to use some Vince Gill type bends which I think are best suited to electric guitars!
‘Rebecca’ played by the Tin Box Company
This tune is called ‘Rebecca’ and it’s by Herschel Sizemore. It’s an interesting one as it’s keyed in B (you find Bb more in bluegrass) and the structure of the song is a little different than the usual AA/BB too.
This is the unedited version which is just a zoom recorder placed near the speaker.
I tried a more melodic approach on the first guitar solo (c. 30 seconds in) which folds back on itself and moves through the chord before getting a bit more blues oriented. Sadly I never had mastered the ability to do this at the speed of though/live music and correctly.
The second break coming up to 3:00 is more along the lines of what I would call ‘my sound’ which is more chromatic oriented and a bit jumped up (also reliably full of mistakes as always!). It’s fun to play at least 😉