Dave McPherson
Album: Dreamoirs
Label: Northern Music
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.facebook.com/davemcphersonmusic

Since going solo, having been in bands like InMe, Dave McPherson has proved himself to be a prolific singer songwriter, one versed in the twin worlds of hard graft and reflective observation. Solid gigging lead to his 2011 debut album, "The Hardship Diaries" reaching double its funding objectives in a matter of weeks.

His hard work ethic and dedication to his musical core continues through 2013, not only has he released album number two, "Dreamoirs", this time via a label, he's also committed himself to The Good People Movement:365, producing a song a day for the whole year.

"Dreamoirs", as the title implies, is an album of songs based on dreams and that's really all sorts of dreams, the casual day dream, complex life dreams as well as the more surreal aspects of dreams, thrown up on the back of our eyelids like Dali movies and then set to an acoustic pop/rock styling.

It leads to an album that is very tangential in its nature, one that naturally heads off in different directions, sometimes looking at what is right in front of you, at others a more surreal flight of fancy and yet at the same time manages to stay a very coherent whole at a time when parts of the media are trying to convince us that albums are going to become less and less relevant, albums like "Dreamoirs" expose that for the lie that it is. Hearing the song in a context adds something a little extra to it, even when it's a great song when standing aside.

This is an album that could easily have been called "Reflections And Considerations" as they are the two themes that twist and turn through the tracks, creating an album that entices you to do just that. In "Dreamoirs" McPherson has an album that should get people talking.

Neil King