Reviews

Artist: Andy Whittle
Album:Old Fashioned Dream
Label:Folkwit Records
Tracks: 13
Rating: ****
Contact:   www.andywhittle.com

Just a few short years ago, there was a real dearth of quality new solo male artists, performing in the acoustic routes genre. The old guard, Carthy, Tams etc, still held court, female singer/songwriters dominated the ground and for some reason the next generation of male artists were failing to make the breakthrough.
Evidence of this is provided by looking at the Mercury awards and looking at the gender of the token folkie. It's starting to change again. The next generation of artists are poising themselves ready to breakthrough, one of the first amongst them is Notts based singer/songwriter Andy Whittle.
Despite only being 24, Andy writes with a quality and passion that at times defies his youth. It leads you to draw two conclusions: Andy has encountered a lot of emotional, psychological truma along the way and/or he's a highly evocative, creative songwriter, able to put himself on a plane with his subjects
Old Fashioned Dreams is a great album, not just for a debut, but by anyone's standards. It's thirteen songs are solid and innovative as they progress like a compendium of short stories. Characters and places populate the songs giving Andy the chance to ground them in the memory by use of memory hooks.
There is an element of Paul Simon in both the writing style and delivery, but with a contempoary shift that shows Andy Whittle is a man that understands his influences, but is way more than a copyist/tribute act. He knows his music references and uses them to guide him along his own path.
Sometimes singer/songwriters can be too sparse with their sound, but Andy Whittle has collected around him a group of musicians that understand what he's striving for. Consequently there is a richness about the song that means they stand, not just as vehicles for Andy's writing talent, but as complete songs, with melody and depth. The internet has made artists like Andy Whittle available in a way they never were before. I discovered Any Whittle via his page on my Myspace Music, got the chance to hear some of his music, then track down his cd. There are now more excuses then ever to hear bad music, more ways to access it. The upside of that statement, is that there is less and less excuse to buy it. Andy Whittle ranks high on my list of discoveries over the years. Old Fashioned Dream makes a highly welcome addition to the collection and hopefully Andy and his band will go on to bigger and better things