My old pal Brian Houston has a new album out, ‘Belfast Troubadour’ – very much in the Americana vein influence-wise, but a fairly big production rather than a campfire vibe on most of it. It’s not streaming anywhere, so I can only post a live version of the lead track – my favourite on it, the best song Hank forgot to write (in my view) 🙂
If anyone (in the UK) fancies reviewing the album, PM me and I’ll have a copy posted to you. It’s tough out there for sole trader artists to get heard. I’ve written a couple of times before here about Brian – someone else’s turn. One interesting thing about the release is that the vinyl version is a different mix to the CD. I can have both posted out if one person with time on their hands and a bit of interest wants to hear both. 🙂
I can imagine Nick Lowe singing that song.
Or Hank Wangford.
Really enjoyed has Sugar Queen album from a while back. Think I might take a punt on this new one on vinyl , as Mike H said the track posted in this thread is reminiscent of Nick Lowe.
I must say, the vinyl looks great – and the mix is exclusive, which is a nice touch. Brian sought opinions from two or three people about mixes once he had 18-20 tracks recorded, from which to draw for an album – interest declared, I was one such, and Brian took a lot of my ideas on board, including some ideas that impacted track order.
After that, he took further advice on the mix approach overall (at least, the CD mix) from a mutual friend, Quiet James (who designed the LP/CD sleeves), and though I have a soft spot for the warmer sound of the tracks/mixes I gave feedback on, I can see why Brian chose James’ approach and went for slightly crunchier tracks with the vocal sitting closer to the music.
I’m probably too close to it all now to see wood from trees – and I imagine Brian, having lived with it for months and with the luxury of being a multi-instrumentalist with his own studio, was even further into the undergrowth! It may be that Brian went for the warmer mixes on the vinyl – I’ve yet to hear it.
I know someone. I’ll see if he will allow a copy to be made for here.
Nice song. I wonder how well he hears the headphones through that hat?
Probably not very well, but it looks cooool
That’s excellent – is there a bandcamp link for the fella?
Unfortunately not for this album – but there’s a free live album (I was there…):
https://brianhouston.bandcamp.com/album/a-brief-introduction
That’s free in a 5USD kind of way
Apologies – I got it wrong. Still, a troubadour has to eat.