Friday 12 March 2010

Dust and Gold

Just thought I'd write a few lines about new Dust and Gold album...
Really pleased and excited about the new product...

Tracks:
Child in the Sun
Turnaround Town
Feathers and Flowers
She's OK
Digging Song
Here We Go
Leaning On Nothing
Somewhere In Copenhagen
Sing It Out
Come On In
Dust And Gold
Waiting For You

As an album Dust and Gold is stand alone but also makes up part 3 of a colour themed trilogy of work, (previous releases being my debut, Brilliant Blue and the follow up Red Tree.)....
The Title Dust and Gold is taken from track 11, but in my mind the rootsy overtones of banjo scattered through some of the songs makes for the dusty image while the jazzier sounds of the soprano sax and piano create the shiny gold texture- and this comes together for the very last song with banjo, sax and piano in ‘Waiting for You.

The album has been recorded, mixed and mastered by Dylan Fowler at his studio Felin Fach in Abergavenny here in Wales- it's a beautiful place, an old converted Mill surrounded by trees and a river running alongside. The studio itself was rustic with sloping ceilings (as Bill saw straight away- no straight lines!) Dylan and his wife Gill were exceptionally hospitable and made the whole experience feel more like some creative retreat rather than the time limited pressure of recording that could have been the case! Dylan also took on the role as producer working closely in collaboration with me on arrangements of the songs. We recorded all of my lead vocal with either guitar, banjo or piano parts as ‘live takes' and a number of tracks were jammed and improvised live with percussion/ accordion/ piano adding on additional overdubs later.....

The style and content of the material draws upon folk, roots, blues, americana, jazz, gospel and singer songwriter genres, and is very much a crossover integration of all the above.
Instrumentation includes, acoustic guitars, mandocello, banjo, soprano sax, piano, percussion, cello, accordion, electric guitar, bass, layered vocal harmony, harmonica and more…

visit the Hushland Label Shop to pre- order CD's (pre- orders include limited edition bonus EP) and take a listen- to some of the tracks in the Hushland Listening Lounge www.hushland.com