Anna Russell, Craig Hamilton, Cam Docherty and various waifs and strays
Sounds Like
"the sound you'd get when mp3 players shuffle from Bill Monroe to Tungg to Wilco to AC/DC to Fairport Convention to Will Oldham to Crazy Horse to Otis Redding"
Friends of the Stars have never done things the easy way. Nor have they often gone the right way; at least, not before a couple of ambitious, ill-conceived or simply stubborn blind alleys have been ventured down first.
That’s why the appearance of “Lighting & Electrical”, their first commercially available album, is such a minor miracle.
Buy Lighting and Electrical from iTunes
Let’s start by admitting it has taken more than two years to release. The cool way of looking at this is they wrote, played, recorded, and produced the whole thing themselves... at home. They roped in expert technical expertise from kindly friends who gave of their time without charge... which kind of means you can’t tap your watch and look miffed at them all the time.
Basically, it’s homegrown. And you don’t rush ‘homegrown’.
The other way of looking at this - the less cool, “accurate” way of looking at this - is that Friends of the Stars can sometimes be guilty of being headstrong about things they later regret. Not tuning the guitars to a piano for the first two or three months of recording, rendering them utterly useless, is a good example of this.
In truth, both the cool and less cool ways of looking at Lighting and Electrical are true. All opposite things co-exist in the world of Friends of the Stars - right and wrong, a strong work-ethic mixed with sloth, acoustic and electric, English and Scottish, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic, country and folk, rock and the roll ... hell, even male and female.
The other thing FOTS comprises is a rare mix of songwriting savvy, vocal harmonies and honest musicianship. There’s nothing forced or flashy about FOTS - there never has been in their seven year history. There never was a need, when you can plug your guitar in, walk up to the microphone and start playing songs as good as “Old Souls” or “Been Down” or “Sharpening a Blade”.
But the album’s ten tracks tell that story better than any words on any page can. This is the first album the band have released but each song has been filtered through seven years of literally hundreds of songs, countless gigs, different line-ups, different priorities, different goals.
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Just as a sideline - despite this wealth of material (little of which has been released until “Lighting & Electrical”) the band’s bloody-mindedness led to them playing four cover versions for their second John Peel Session in 2002. That’s “national radio” chaps, nati-o-nal ra-di-o!
The trio that comprises FOTS - Craig Hamilton, Anna Russell and Cam Docherty - share out the singing and songwriting duties. But, despite the different voices, there’s a unity of sound and a unity of purpose.
Thanks so much for listening...xxx
Buy the album from our label Commercially Inviable by clicking HERE
******EXTRA GOOD STUFF!!******
If you like the songs you're hearing here you may like the Friends of the Stars Podcasts which feature tunes and conversation and are FREE - click here to download
2's UP, it's ma fuckin birthday... Free Limited Edition Print (1/50) and an 80min mix cd (1/150) to the earliest arrivals...
NOTE THAT WE ARE STARTING AT 9 THIS MONTH, TO MAKE ROOM FOR THE TREMOLO BEER GUT (all the way from Denmark) AND BIG NED (all the way from the black lodge).
Hi, through out JULY AND AUGUST we are slashing our day time rehearsal prices. Between 10am and 5pm all our rooms are either £6 or £7 per hour including weekends. Making us one of the cheapest in SUSSEX. Plus If you buy 3 hours we will even throw in a 4th totally FREE. YES TOTALLY FREE.
OUR RECORDING RATES ARE STILL JUST AS AFFORDABLE TOO, FULL DAYS FROM £200 ALL IN.
So come and rehearse and record in one of the best equipped music complex's in the South.
Hi, through JUNE AND JULY we are slashing our day time rehearsal prices. Between 10am and 5pm all our rooms are either £6 or £7 per hour including weekends. Making us one of the cheapest in SUSSEX. Plus If you buy 3 hours we will even throw in a 4th totally FREE. YES TOTALLY FREE.
OUR RECORDING RATES ARE STILL JUST AS AFFORDABLE TOO, FULL DAYS FROM £200 ALL IN.
So come and rehearse and record in one of the best equipped music complex's in the South.
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