Reviews

Artist: Andy Whittle
Album:A Songmaker's Tale
Label:Folkwit Records
Tracks: 12
Rating: ****
Contact:   www.andywhittle.com

Andy Whittle's previous cut, "Old Fashioned Dream" was our debut album of the year last year. That "A Songmaker's Tale" has come out so quickly on the back of that show's Andy is not only a talented writer, but also a prodigious one. He's at home writing about everyday events as he is at writing about events on a global scale. Equally he's at home exposing his raw emotions and hiding his feelings from a voyeuristic world.
It's that ability that will see Andy recognised as a great singer/songwriter, the only issue should be when and not if. In a fair world, Andy's album would have been paraded from the tree tops on the back of that debut, but as we know the world is not a fair place and Andy Whittle is still having to work hard to get onto the collective radar. The good news is that he seems more than willing to put that graft in so if he's playing near you do try and find the time to drop him and see why we rate him so highly.
In many ways it's easy to be a singer songwriter at the moment. If you want to do more than sing your diary there really is so much out in the big bad world to write about, the real trick is to find a new angle and when it comes to songwriting tricks and angles, Andy's a positive Paul Daniels, only this is one you'll like a lot(I'm guessing that quipp's just aged me)(as has the use of the word quipp, still never mind.) A good example of which is "Friendly Fire" which sees him dealing with the anti-war song genre.
With the natural exception of a few songs, one of the things I like about Whittle as a songwriter is his refusal to lie in the life's unfair, the world's crap and against me style of songwriting. It's more aspirational, not only from the point of view, but also for the social environments that surround him. It's something that seems to inform him.
That he's called the album "A Songmaker's Tale", rather than a songwriter's tale, for me speaks volumes. A maker, is a craftsman that puts together his creation that builds and makes something tangible, songs you can almost touch, feel on the outside as well as the inside.
Once again his writing is matched, by the way he interprets the songs. Some come with full band, others have a lighter more sparse touch. The key is you know the songs can take a switch in treatment. They are robust enough to move from man and guitar to full band and back again. It must have been a tough choice to decide what songs were going to get what treatment.
Together with Rebecca Dawson, whose also in the band, Andy also produced the album. The result is something he can truly be proud off. The hard graft starts here, more time out on the road to promote it and himself. "The Songmaker's Tale" must surely only be the second chapter in a much longer story. It's a book that started strongly and has seen some real plot development. Andy's got a talent to nurture and hopefully the strength of character that will see him breakthrough.

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