We just finished our first show playing material from the “Covering these tracks” album. This is an exceptional ensemble, “West Yorkshire meets West Coast USA”
This is a different feel and vibe to other ensembles to date and its all acoustic and a 6 piece band. For once I’m only playing on half the set, the rest of the time, I’m up front doing vocals. Its a very different experience, but I’m loving it. Its like finding my own “E Street band” with Harry Orme as MD playing guitar, Dave Bowie on bass, Rich Ferdi on percussion, Towse on vocals and Corwin Zekley on violin.
Its a unique experience fronting a 6 piece band and veryof course the interaction between players is crucial. Towse have played together as a duo for years and Harry, Dave and Rich are an extraordinary trio. I’ve never felt that I’ve been in safer hands and of course Grace Fellows aka Towse is an extraordinary singer with a superb musical instinct. We’ve already working on the follow up to Covering these tracks including Steve Earle’s “Fearless Heart” which we played on the night live. This project continues to be really inspirational and allows me to dig into decades of listening to great tracks. Volume 2 of “Covering these tracks” will include songs by Nick Cave and Fred Eagelsmith among other artists. Harry Orme has become a game changer in this project, a brilliant musician and all round nice guy who is a joy to work with.
Towse
Towse aka Grace Fellows and Corwin Zekley are a fantastic dynamic force and before this live event they had played 40 gigs across the USA. I’m constantly amazed by their performances, they are unpredictable, provocative and technically superb. I was delighted to have them support Jon Gomm last year adn look forward to new live shows in 2024. We are on a roll in terms of recording and they never disappoint in their session work. Playing live with them is a wild experience and they sound amazing as part of the full band. I’m sure we will record a lot more tracks together.
Live reaction
The audience reaction to the set was fantastic and I had scores of e-mails and private messages the following day. This is the first time I have ever played material by any artists other than myself and performed only doing vocals. Fronting a band of this quality is quite an experience and its an absolute joy to be play with them both live and recording in the studio. We’ll be doing more shows in 2024 and releasing more material.