jamie lawson - guitar and vocal
joe peet - bass, violin, piano and organ
tom clues - electric guitar and bass
ben woollacott - drums and percussion
Influences
Ryan Adams, R.E.M, Jeff Buckley, 10, 00 Maniacs, Natalie Merchant, Jackson 5, The Smiths, Morrissey, Whiskeytown, Nickel Creek, Simon Allen, Tom Clues, John Irving books, Ian Hamilton poetry.
ABOUT JAMIE LAWSON...
So why give your time and attention to Jamie? It’s not as if there’s any obvious shortage of young singer-songwriters right now. Far from it. Wherever you turn, there’s yet another fresh-faced hopeful coming at you with a guitar and a claim on the future. But even in a crowded marketplace there will always be room for an artist who has what it takes to be better than the rest. And if you love music and have a heart and a pair of ears, you’ll recognise within the space of just one song that here is exactly that sort of someone. A musician and lyricist of uncommon and mature gift, and one blessed with a gloriously fluid and expressive voice, he is as the title of his introductory single suggests, the Real Thing.
The back story? Jamie was born and raised in Plymouth in what was he says a resolutely non-musical household. “No-one sang or played anything. We didn’t have any records. My dad would listen to Radio 2 a bit but that was the extent of it. And this was back in the days before the station got really good. There was nothing in what I heard that spoke directly to me.” Then the elder of his two brothers hit adolescence and things began to change: “He got me into The Smiths, The Housemartins, the Jackson 5 ...” A disparate trio of early influences, you might think, but Jamie says not really. “They’re all very big on melody. And Morrissey and the young Michael Jackson both have a real passion to the way they sing.”
Aged eight, he asked for and received his first guitar. Early on in secondary school, he was invited to join his first band. “We were quite a dedicated little bunch, rehearsing every lunchtime when the rest of the class was out playing football. It was pretty much all covers, of course ... R.E.M., the Chilli Peppers, some Hendrix. By the time I was 15 we had quite a wide repertoire of other people’s badly-done songs.” He was writing material of his own too, “all of it terrible to start with, of course. I’d be 17 at least before I came up with anything good.” And he was singing, though mainly in unconscious impersonation of Michael Stipe. “My own voice took a while to find. I had to stop trying to replicate someone else’s tricks.”
When he did properly uncover it, that voice proved to be something very special indeed. No one who has heard him sing live would disagree (and in addition to his own regular schedule of gigging, he has played with artists including The Frames, Martha Wainwright and Damien Rice, as well as having been chosen as opening act for outdoor gigs by both Van Morrison and Katie Melua). Even-keeled, even undemonstrative offstage, he comes alive in front of an audience and in the service of his songs. “American Music Club’s Mark Eitzel has been a big influence, in the sense that he sings with his whole body and puts so much into his performance. The difference is that my voice is sweeter and more pure.”
It is however just as passionate. And it’s no coincidence that the ‘p’ word should have cropped up again, for it is central to why Jamie Lawson is special. He puts an inordinate amount of that particular and unfakeable commodity into each performance and has done so since the fledgling days of his career. “I remember taking home the first proper demo I ever recorded and being really disappointed by it,” he recalls. “Listening to it with me my dad said, ‘Well, that’s because you’re not singing on that (recording) the way that you do when you’re upstairs in your room.’ And he was right. It was all about the passion or, in that case, the lack of it. I realised I had to sing in front of others the way I did when on my own.”
There was a brief and half-hearted attempt at following a different career path. But unhappy and unfulfilled in his earliest weeks at Art College, Jamie sought the advice of a counsellor who then asked him, ‘So what do you want to do with your life?’ “And when I said that I wanted to be a singer she told me, ‘Then go and do it!’ which totally surprised me but which was absolutely the right thing to say. I met that woman just once and for five minutes. I don’t even know her name. But she showed me what I had to do.” And via a geographically circuitous route that has taken in Dublin, Cornwall and now London and during which both his song writing skills and stagecraft have increased by leaps and bounds, he has done it.
Jamie Lawson is not just a singer but also an exceptionally blessed and affecting one, whether with his regular band (it features musicians Joe Peet, Tom Clues and Ben Woolacott) or in a solo and acoustic setting. His voice and songs have proven to work equally beautifully and well whether in a tiny indoor venue like London’s 12 Bar Club or outdoors before 10,000 people. “And the simple fact is that I love to sing,” he says. “I love the intimacy of live performance. I love drawing people into my mood. I love bringing them to where I am.” His single, the taster for an album now nearing completion and due for release later this year, shows exactly how good he is at doing just that. To repeat, it is - and he is - the Real Thing.
Alan Jackson.
London, July 2008.
You can buy the Real Thing E.P. by clicking on this link.
You can buy the debut album "Last Night Stars" by clicking the link below
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Ps, this page is for jamie lawson music, to contact him personally as a friend now go to www.myspace.com/jamierlawson or just click on "jamie" below.
Hey! Just wanted to let you know I have a new song up called "I Didn't Know". If you get a chance, please check it out and let me know what you think! Thank you so much! I hope your week rocks! :-)
HEY THERE FOLKS. JUST CHECKING IN WITH YOU ..PLAYING A BUNCH A DIFFERENT TYPE SHOWS OVER THE NEXT FEW MONTHS. IF YOUR IN IRELAND OR ENGLAND. OR YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED -CAN YOU LET THEM KNOW?? THIS OF COURSE IS THE GREAT ACID TEST OF MY SPACE- IF YOU CONTACTED ME - THEN HERE I AM CONTACTING YOU.
IRELAND 03- OF APRIL - IN THE GREYSTONES THEATRE- WITH SUPPORT FROM MARIA BYRNE .
17TH OF APRIL- IN KILORGAN-CO KERRY- IN THE SOL Y SOMBRA.
20TH TO THE 30TH OF APRIL IN NYC- RECORDING A LIVE C.D DUE OUT THIS YEAR.
ENGLAND
13TH OF MAY- MONKEY CHEWS- IN LONDON- WITH SUPPORT FROM SEAMUS MC LOUGHLIN.
A SPECIAL SHOW- ON THE 16TH OF MAY IN BRINDLE, CHORLEY, LANCASHIRE. PLACES ARE PRETTY LIMITED ON THIS ONE - BUT I THINK IT'S A BEAUTY, LET ME KNOW.
22ND OF MAY IN YORK- HOUSE CONCERTS- AS ABOVE - GREAT PLACE TO PLAY AND COME AND HEAR MUSIC.
BACK TO IRELAND FOR CONARY HALL-IN AVOCA . CO WICKLOW- LIVE MIC WEEKENDER. ON THE 24TH OF MAY.
THEN BACK TO THE U. K
THE 31ST OF MAY AT THE VERVE BAR IN LEEDS..THAT'S IT FOR NOW- HAVE A LOOK OVER AND SEE IF YOUR AROUND.
Hiya Jamie - it was excellent to meet you last night and I loved your set :) Good luck with the gigging and recording, and I hope to catch up with you again very soon. Hugs ck xx
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