Irregular (label)
31 January 2020 (released)
28 April 2020
This album has been around for a couple of months but it has been a regular on my player for the last month or so while I desperately try and find the right words to say about it.
Frankly, it is a beautiful collection of stories about real people, observations and musings and all accompanied by some superb and uncategorizable music.
The songs were penned between 2015 and 2019 all over Europe - from Paris, Prague, Greece, London & Stalingrad – and it bears the flavours of travel and friendships from all over.
In many ways he reminds me of people such as Al Stewart or Ralph McTell in the way he has a voice that is as much talking as singing and where the lyrics stand up without the backing music but are immeasurably enhanced by it.
His music has a great deal of folk in it but also a jazz heart but his lyrics are really what takes the ear and his poems bear reading as well as hearing and he has supplied the lyrics in the package.
The album is available in both CD and vinyl formats and unusually they are different recordings of different songs. The LP has Robb on guitar and he is accompanied by Fae Simon while the CD has him accompanied by his full band and there are only four numbers that appear on both formats!
It is a terrific album, great to pick up and listen to each song on its own or to go through the album from start to finish. Top stuff.
