Happy Anniversary!

What anniversary I hear you say?

Well... on this day last year we launched my last album 'Battles' with a sold-out show, at St Pancras Old Church in London. With that in mind I thought it apt that I write a little blog about what I've been up to in the in past few months and what the next few months hold in store.

Photo by Rosie Collins (c) 2013

When I last wrote on here I'd just been in the studio recording my Christmas single 'A Child's Christmas in Wales' based upon the short story by Dylan Thomas.

Watch the video here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqUx_LgJGJo

I was really pleasantly surprised by the reception it got, how warmly it was received and how it completely exceeded all of my expectations. To get played on Radio 2 on Christmas morning (as I prepared the Turkey!) was surreal and wonderful. Thanks to Clare Balding for keeping her side of the bargain ;)

Christmas already seems like a long time ago now...but the beauty of it (as we all know) is that it comes around every year, so I'll have another bite of the cherry come December when it all starts over again..!

At the end of November, myself, Sarah and Mary got the opportunity to open for Jools Holland and his R&B Orchestra at the one and only Royal Albert Hall..!

It easily ranks as one of my all time favourite gigs and I'd love to think that one day I'll get the opportunity to play there again...fingers crossed!

In January I went into the studio to start work on my next Welsh language album, entitled 'Heulwen o Hiraeth' (Sunshine after Longing) it will be the third album we've released in Welsh. Here are the gents who feature on the record - from left to right (clockwise) - Sion (Bass) CJ (Drums) Arwel (Guitars) and Mei Gwynedd whose job it was to try and make us sound half decent and whose studio we were using!

Looking ahead I have some live shows coming up (check the website for details).

There will also be a TV special on S4C called 'Noson yng Nghwmni' (An Evening with..) where me and the band will be performing songs off the last few Welsh records. It airs on Easter Saturday (19th April).

Finally on Thurs 1st May I'll be returning to St Pancras Old Church for another intimate evening of acoustic music. Get your tickets here now - http://bit.ly/1fsDlRB
To celebrate this fact my good friend Ben A Williams has produced a new video of 'Battles' using footage from that special night a year ago today....how time flies.

Enjoy, Al x

The Covers EP Vol.1

So I thought with the imminent release of my new EP based on songs by other songwriters I admire I'd give you a bit of background on all five artists whose songs I've covered.

 1) Judee Sill -

I must admit I only recently stumbled across the music of Judee Sill but was immediately taken in by her haunting (classical-esque) melodies and intriguing, opaque lyrics. 
She was the first artist signed to David Geffen's Asylum label 
The song I chose of hers was 'Jesus was a Crossmaker'. It is filled with religious connotations and yet you feel underneath it all lies a simple love-song reminiscent of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" by Carole King and Gerry Goffin.

Like so many artists of her generation Judee's story is one filled with sorrow and regret as she sadly passed away long before her time at the age of 35 having never received the recognition she longed for and deserved during her lifetime.

Her she is performing 'The Kiss'. This was recorded in London in February of 1973 for the "Old Grey Whistle Test" TV program on the BBC with Bob Harris presenting.

2) John Martyn - 

If ever a man encapsulated the term 'Troubled Troubadour' it was probably John Martyn. 
l first heard about John Martyn from my aunt who bought "Sweet Little Mysteries - The Island Anthology" for me one Christmas. It was a great present as he was someone I learnt a lot from in terms of his songwriting skills and guitar technique.

His songs are always accompanied by an interesting guitar part and he always played around with his tunings something which I hadn't really thought of doing before I listened to his music.

I chose this song to cover as it was always my favourite of his - such a beautiful melody and haunting lyrics about love lost...written whilst he was going through a divorce from his wife Beverley.

There's a great piece written for the Guardian's "Old Music" section where Greg Freeman talks about his appreciation for John Martyn's 'Sweet Little Mystery' here, there's also a link to a live performance from 1984 - http://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/feb/10/john-martyn-sweet-little-mystery


3) Tom Waits - 

Tom Waits's repertoire isn't the easiest to get your teeth into...having said that he's written some absolute classics and a bit like Dylan, once you accept the voice for what it is, the songs open themselves up as treasures to behold.

His first album 'Closing Time' (again released on Geffen's influential Asylum Records) is one of my all-time favourites and a great place to start for first time Waits listeners...very simply produced, it's all about the songs and the performances.

I first heard this song however covered by another artist Tim Buckley. Though his version had mixed critical responses I liked it and went about to discover the original. I think the lyrics are brilliant at painting a picture (the ultimate goal with any song - make the listener feel as if they're standing in the writer/singers shoes) and the sentiment fits perfectly with the melody.

Here's Lisa Hannigan and Cormac Curran's version performed live at Turning Pirate NYE Mixtape 2012.

4) Joni Mitchell - 

Another iconic artist from the late 60s-early 70s. So influential still today.
She flourished like many singer-songwriters did in the Laurel-Canyon (Los Angeles / California) scene that emerged during that period and spawned many a successful career including those of James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Eagles and many more.
Again like with Judee Sill - David Geffen (seen above with Joni and Cass Elliot from the Mamas & the Papas) was prominent behind the scenes.
The song I chose was written for David Geffen and describes a trip Geffen and Mitchell made to Paris with Robbie and Dominique Robertson (from The Band).


5) Dan Fogelberg

Probably the least well known out of the five artists I chose, Dan Fogelberg was an American singer-songwriter who had his biggest success in the early 1980s, just before I was born.
The song 'Leader of the Band' was his biggest hit and it's not hard to see why - it's a beautiful song with poignant lyrics.
It's a love song but not in the traditional meaning of the term but about the bond between a father and a son.
Not too dissimilar in that respect to Cat Stevens' hit 'Father & Son' in that it tells of how both the father and the son can tend to have difficulties sometimes in understanding one-another but ultimately there is mutual respect and love that they share with each other.

You can listen to the tracks from The Covers EP Vol.1 on SoundCloud here - https://soundcloud.com/allewismusic/sets/the-covers-ep-vol-1

February - The Album Launch

So with this dreary weather persisting, placing myself back in February isn't that hard to do!
It feels like we've been in never-ending Winter so far in 2013 and having just supported Paper Aeroplanes on the last leg of their tour last night it brought to mind their song 'Winter Never Comes' and how unfortunately to the contrary it doesn't seem to want to go away at all!!

February consisted of one major event...the release of 'Battles'. A few weeks previous to the album launch show - I'd had the privilege to open for Tanita Tikaram at the wonderful Cadogan Hall in Chelsea - the resident home of the the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was a great venue to play and as you'd expect the acoustics were amazing! I certainly hope to play there again some day.

A few days later I was up in North London to record a session with the guys over at The Crypt Sessions - the first video of which is now available to watch here. Following that I then popped in to do an in-store performance for the lovely peeps over at Spillers Records in Cardiff. 'Battles' would go on to be their biggest selling album by a Welsh artist in February (a very nice accolade to have).

On the 18th Febraury 'Battles' was officially released, and to celebrate that fact, we put on a gig at one of my favourite London venues, St Pancras Old Church.

It was a complete sell-out beforehand so we knew it had the makings to be a great night. I had asked my friend and former tour-buddy Lotte Mullan to open up and she served up yet another lovely set of country/americana/folky-tinged tunes. Go check her out!

I was accompanied once again by my good friends Mary Erskine (of Me for Queen) on cello/piano and Sarah Howells (of Paper Aeroplanes) on vocals. Both are extremely talented musicians in their own right and if you haven't yet heard their other musical projects then click on those links for a taster.

I had my friend (and rather talented photographer) Rosie Collins come take some pictures and as you can see she got some real crackers. You can scroll through the rest of them over at my Flickr page here.

Another friend of mine Ben Williams helped us capture even more of the evening through filming a video with help from Rosie and Jamie to accompany one of the songs off 'Battles', 'Don't Believe in Magic'. Watch it here -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3Q4PBdmArI

We had decided to record the audio that evening and decided to get some CDs made of the concert as a little memento to all those who were there.
Artwork was made by Anika Mottershaw.

These mini-albums are also now available to purchase at all of my future shows.
We kept four songs off the CD for those who can't make a live-show and put them on a digital EP available to download. A taster of which can be heard below -



Here's hoping that June has a few more days of sunshine in store for us, for as a wise man once said..."we all need sunshine in our lives"... :) x

January.....

So I've decided to try and make this into a monthly thing even though I'm pretty useless at keeping it up I'm hoping this will spur me into being more regular (even if I am only now doing the January post....). I've used the picture above as a reminder of the rolling hills and 'snowy-linen' land and of how damn cold it was back in January!

It's been a pretty whirlwind start to 2013 so far....in my last post I mentioned the next single being 'Make a Little Room' well that got January off to a great start by being added onto the BBC Radio 2 playlist (watch the video here). I then had many a surreal moment when my song would come on the radio as I'd be driving home / cooking in the kitchen or just pottering in the flat! It was a surreal experience having Steve Wright say my name during the middle of the afternoon...great feeling nonetheless. It was then picked up by Magic FM and added to their playlist too!

At the beginning of the month the session I'd done for great new music website Daytrotter was released (alongside a cool cartoon drawing of me)..you can listen back to the session here.

At the end of the month I was invited up to Glasgow to take part in the wonderful Celtic Connections festival that is held up there lasting almost a month. Being a Welshman it was a festival I felt extremely at home with playing. The venue I played was the stunning Mitchell Library in support of Tanita Tikaram. It would be the first of our dates together incorporating some gorgeous venues along the way.

 


Whilst we were up in Gateshead preparing for the show at the armadillo shaped Sage (not too dissimilar to the Wales Millennium Centre) - I popped in to see the guys over at Amazing Radio HQ. They are big champions of new music and have real music lovers in their midst which is nice to see! I did an acoustic version of 'Make a Little Room' for them. You can watch it here.

Make a Little Room

Happy New Year to you all!
Really looking forward to 2013 and all it has in store... scroll down to see my January/February tour dates with Tanita Tikaram. Be sure you get your tickets early to avoid disappointment.

First off fresh for 2013 here's a first look at my next single, which is a revamp of 'Make a Little Room' and it is available to download from today on iTunes - http://bit.ly/Zsq2NW - or AmazonMP3 - http://amzn.to/UPkclU plus be sure to enjoy the canal based video above!

Artwork by Anika Mottershaw

January / February Live Dates (w/ Tanita Tikaram)
 

Tues 22nd Jan - Celtic Connections Festival, Mitchell Library, Glasgow - click here for info
Thur 24th Jan - The Stables, Milton Keynes - click here for info

Fri 25th Jan - The Sage 2, Gateshead - click here for info

Sun 27th Jan - City Varieties, Leeds - click here for info

Mon 28th Jan - St George's, Bristol - click here for info
Sat 2nd Feb - Cadogan Hall, London - click here for info 

Singing for Cerys

Hello Friends!

As I've spoken about at length in previous posts on here - http://bit.ly/UL1Ban - Battles - my next album was recorded out in Nashville earlier this year with Charlie Peacock (Producer of The Civil Wars). Someone who knows a fair bit about Nashville is Cerys Matthews, having lived there for a few years herself, so it was great to exchange stories with her when I dropped in to do a session at BBC Radio 2 the weekend before last whilst she sat in for Dermot O'Leary. We sang her a cover of Catatonia's 'Road Rage' just for good measure!

Then on Thursday myself and Mary headed to St.Pancras station to perform as part of Station Sessions http://stpancras.com/station-sessions more info on that when it becomes available.

Yesterday I then found out that the broadcasting legend that is Sir Terry Wogan had given Treading Water a play on his BBC Radio 2 show and Jen Long & Ally McCrae had also given it a spin on their BBC Radio 1 show!

That is all for now - I'd love to hear what you all think of the new album.

My first solo UK headline tour starts NEXT week -- details of where I'll be visiting and when can be found on my website, hopefully see some of you on my travels.

Diolch yn fawr x 

Treading Water

Hello Friends!

I'm pleased to present you with the new(ish) video for my latest single 'Treading Water'.

Directed & Edited by Rosie Collins (http://rosiecollinsphotography.com/)

This will be the first single off the next album Battles which I recorded out in Nashville with Charlie Peacock (Producer of The Civil Wars).

Here's the cover (artwork by Anika Mottershaw) -

 

You can pre-order your copy of the EP now via iTunes - http://bit.ly/O2ZzSl or Amazon MP3 - http://amzn.to/KphCLs

My first solo UK headline tour is also fast approaching and will take place this October --

Details of where I'll be visiting can be found below, hopefully see some of you on my travels.

October Live Dates
 

Wed 3rd Oct - Eric's, Liverpool - click here for tickets
Thurs 4th Oct - The Cluny 2, Newcastle - click here for tickets

Fri 5th Oct - The Basement, York - click here for tickets

Tues 9th Oct - The Portland Arms, Cambridge - click here for info

Thurs 11th Oct - Glee Club, Birmingham - click here for info

Fri 12th Oct - Cookie Jar, Leicester - click here for info

Tues 16th Oct - The Castle, Manchester - click here for info

Weds 17th Oct - South Stree Arts Centre, Reading - click here for info

Thurs 18th Oct - Glee Club, Nottingham - click here for info

Fri 19th Oct - Louisiana 2, Bristol - click here for info

Sat 20th Oct - The Gate, Cardiff (as part of Swn Fest) - click here for info

Tues 23rd Oct - Bicycle Shop, Norwich - click here for info

Weds 24th Oct - Komedia, Brighton - click here for info

Thurs 25th Oct - The Boileroom, Guildford - click here for info

Sat 27th Oct - The Wilmington Arms, London - click here for info

For up-to-date ticketing information please visit my website http://www.allewismusic.com -

complete with gig listings, lyric section and much more:

Best wishes and thanks again for your continued support

  Al x