Caddy Cooper
Album: Snapshot
Label: Self published
Tracks: 13
Website: http://www.caddycooper.com

I first met Caddy when I was asked to film a rehearsal for a band she had just formed called Vivacia. My own private, performance from three beautiful and talent women. What's not to like?

Vivacia performed a number of really good covers of really good songs, but there was one song, my favorite of all they played, that I didn't recognise. Turned out it was called "Impossibly True" and it was written by Caddy herself.

"Snapshot" is Caddy's first complete album release. She has previously released an EP, "Caddy Acoustic", which sold out of its first pressing. Very happy to report that "Impossibly Yours" is one of the tracks on "Snapshot". Still love it.

Caddy is a really talented singer songwriter and quite prolific. I've seen her perform a couple of times and had expected that I'd have heard all of the songs on this album, but the majority of them are new to me. Her songs though are very catching, and you'll be singing along on the second listen.

She's an Australian, but has been in the UK long enough now to be considered as an honoray Pom. She does tour in both countries, and the album was recorded partly in Perth, partly in Fremantle, and partly in Hemel Hempstead in the UK, with backing musicians drawn from across the globe. Caddy is accompanied by a variety of different instruments: harmonica, bass, cello, violin, keyboards, electric guitar and a pedal steel guitar, which adds a wonderful wistful sound to some of her blues songs.

Her music covers genres such as country, folk and blues, and the prettiest (and most raunchiest) song on the album, "Rum and Cuban Fire" has a ring of calypso about it.

When she's singing a happy song, there's something about Caddy's voice that oozes joy.You can hear the smile in her voice. Even in her sad songs you can still sense a twinkle in her eye and all of her sadder songs do have a very positive outlook. In "Safe" for example, she's locked away her heart to keep it safe at the end of a long term relationship; in "Whole Lotta $$" she is dumped on a date by a rich guy but she finds that she actually has more fun without him and in "Thankyou Blues" she admits that if it wasn't for the hard times, she wouldn't be able to write the blues.

I adore the tongue in cheek "Scooter Blues" - it's a proper blues track, even beginning with "Woke up this morning", but it's a song from a child's point of view about a Xmas present of a little three wheeled scooter. It's a blues song, because the scooter is blue.

Caddy has said that she finds that whenever she sits down to write a song, she usually ends up with a love song, so she deliberately tried to write something different, and wrote "This Old Guitar" - and ended up with a love song to her guitar. Yes, there's a few love songs on this album, but this album shows that Caddy has far more range than that.

All in all, "Snapshot" is a beautiful album, if you can tear yourself away from "Rum and Cuban Fire". She sent a promotional copy to a Radio who have said that they like it so much that they are going to play every track on it over the week. I predict big things for this album. As her EP sold out, buy early to avoid disappointment.

Pete Bradley