Adam Beattie And The Consultants
Album: Songs Of One Hundred Years
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 5
Website: http://www.adambeattie.com/

I first came across Adam Beattie when he played a double header with Brooke Sharkey in the Den at Cambridge and was really impressed. He passed me a copy of "Songs For One Hundred Years", an EP he recorded as Adam Beattie And The Consultants and one that I've subsequently played a couple of tracks from on my radio show.

The lead track is a tribute to his grandfather, who was the first in family to see a century of years. I get the feeling that he's a man that would have been an easy man to like, fun to be around, a pragmatic hard grafter that seemed to have enjoyed his long innings, but not wanting to hold onto life just for the sake of it.

It shows the strength of Beattie's writing that you almost feel you know his relative despite only knowing him through a song last just a few minutes. It is the stand out track on what is a very strong and well written cd and easy to understand why the EP was built around it.

The Consultants are predominantly a string section and a very good one at that. Beattie knows how to put a good tune together and how to arrange them. "There's No View Like Bennachie" emphasises this as Beattie overlays his words over a traditional tune.

Brooke Sharkey also makes as appearance on the cd in the capacity of a backing singer, but having seen them perform together, they have a real musical chemistry and I wouldn't be surprised to see her taking a bigger position on an album, when Adam gets around to recording the next one.

Judging by this outing, Adam Beattie is a really good observational songwriter, one I definitely want to hear a lot more from. He appears to have a really empathetic way of writing songs. "Songs Of One Hundred Years" is a great introduction to the artist.

Neil King