Thea Gilmore

Thea Gilmore - Murphy's Heart - 2010 - Fullfill

Murphy's Heart, the eleventh studio offering from singer and songwriter Thea Gilmore, finds a balance between the extreme polish of 2008's Liejacker and the skeletal sound of 2006's Harpo's Ghost. Produced (again) by lead guitarist Nigel Stonier, Gilmore fills the songs on this 13-track set with the talents of 13 musicians, including horn and string players, percussionists, and keyboardists. The expanded cast reflects Gilmore's evolving songwriting and arranging skills; forms and textures have deepened and changed shapes, and the textures she and Stonier employ are more ambitious than anything she's previously attempted, but whether they touch on the perverse carnival soundscapes of Tom Waits (in "Jazz Hands") or are elegantly adorned ("Due South), they contain only what they need in order to project and illuminate her stiletto sharp -- often mischievous -- lyrics. The set opens with "This Town," introduced by a strutting Celtic blues guitar line that quickly becomes a shuffling, minor-key jazz swagger as Gilmore illustrates a physical place as femme fatale: "Hello my little train wreck, I am your worst fear/I'm a mortuary postcard, I'm a graveyard souvenir." On "Love's the Greatest Instrument of Rage," drums, dulcimers, and handclaps fuel Gilmore's spitfire delivery on what could be a drinking song, albeit one of indignation and regret: "So take this epitaph, take anything that's left/I don't want to be here come the day/I did my best you know, I tried to swim the tide/But I am just as guilty in my way...." On the lilting acoustic waltz "Automatic Blue," her protagonist observes the eternal paradox of romance: "Love is either wild frontiers, or automatic blue." "Mexico" is as lonely as its title, adorned by nylon string guitars, viola, and cello, while the album's closer "Wondrous Thing," with its Latin percussion and sparse electric six-string, underscores an early rock melody and a lyric worthy of Doc Pomus: "The moment you came/The stars didn't sing your name/And the heavens didn't shed your skin/Smallest of things/Bravest of offerings/The way that love begins." With the lithe, languid flügelhorn in the backdrop, the song enters the realm of dreams. Murphy's Heart is the work of a seasoned veteran at lofty creative peak in her craft. © Thom Jurek © 2014 AllMusic, a division of All Media Network, LLC. | All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/album/murphys-heart-mw0002039663

How many people have heard of One Direction, Cheryl Cole, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, etc., etc.? How many people have listened to or even heard of Lucy Kaplansky, James McMurtry, Kyla Brox, or Thea Gilmore? The music business is a sick joke. Eric Ambleside on amazon.co.uk speaking about one of Thea’s albums said, "Another outstanding and horribly underrated and overlooked artist. Tragic in the face of all of the third-rate tat out there that sells in such vast quantities". Uncut magazine hailed Thea as "the best British singer-songwriter of the last 10 years...and then some." The Oxford folk-rock singer-songwriter Thea Gilmore is an unheralded but mega-talented English singer/songwriter who doesn't care about commercial, radio friendly songs. She has an irresistible voice, writes great lyrics, and is totally uncompromising with her music. She is certainly not recording for the money. "Murphy's Heart” is another great album of folk, pop, rock, blues, and Americana. Thea is strongly influenced by artists like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and The Beatles and you can hear those influences on most of her albums. You may find the album a “slow burner”, but many of the best albums are. In 2014 she will be 35 y.o with over 15 albums released. She has had a fair degree of success, but not nearly enough and she remains one of the great "undiscovered" singer/songwriters. Great musicians and musicologists like Jools Holland have referred to the talents of this lady. It’s a shame that more people in the music industry don’t give Thea Gilmore more time. But the “music” industry isn’t about music anymore, is it? "Murphy's Heart” is HR by A.O.O.F.C. Check out Thea’s “Harpo’s Ghost", " Rules For Jokers", and "Loftmusic" albums on this blog. Buy her “Burning Dorothy or "Avalanche" albums and promote exceptional contemporary folk rock and real music [All tracks @ 320 Kbps: File size = 107 Mb]

TRACKS

1 This Town 3:54
2 God's Got Nothing On You 3:35
3 Due Douth 3:30
4 Jazz Hands 2:33
5 Love's The Greatest Instrument Of Rage 3:06
6 Automatic Blue 4:05
7 Coffee And Roses 3:55
8 You're The Radio 3:58
9 Teach Me To Be Bad 3:41
10 Not Alone 3:15
11 How The Love Gets In 4:13
12 Mexico 4:12
13 Wondrous Thing 4:05

All songs composed by Thea Gilmore except Track 8 by Thea Gilmore & Nigel Stonier

MUSICIANS

Thea Gilmore - Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Nigel Stonier - Guitar, Bass, Piano, Harmonium, Ukulele, Dulcimer, Harmonica [Bass], Cuatro, Cimbala, Q Chord, Backing Vocals
Ulf 'Rockis' Ivarsson - Bass, Synthesizer, Sounds [Treatments] on Tracks 2, 4
Roy Martin - Drums
Michael Blair - Drums, Percussion [+ Metal Plates, Table Top, Flight Case], Vibraphone, Marimba, Organ [Pump] on Tracks: 2, 4
Daniel J Logan - Djembe, Cahon, Timbales, Bongoes, Hand Drums, Shakers
Mike Cave - Tambourine, Percussion [Guiro], Shaker, Programming
Michael Blair - Triangle on Track 13
Marco Bernardis - Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone
Mike Davis - Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Paul Burton - Trombone
Liz Hanks - Cello
Fluff - Violin, Viola, Backing Vocals
Fermin Herrera - Harp [Veracruz] on Track 12
Steve Butler - Backing Vocals

BIO

Singer/songwriter Thea Gilmore was born to Irish parents in 1979. While coming of age in North Aston, Oxfordshire in England, she ignored the new wave reign of the '80s and instead began to seek out her parents' Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell albums. Later, she found comfort in the work of Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, and the Replacements, naturally absorbing the intelligence behind each artist's work. Gilmore began writing poetry and short stories to amuse herself amidst her conventional surroundings, but she needed something more tangible. She left home at age 16 to go work in a recording studio. Gilmore also founded her own Shameless Records and released her debut album, Burning Dorothy, in 1998. The Lipstick Conspiracies and the As If EP followed two years later, and Gilmore's star power started to buzz. In the new millennium, Gilmore inked a deal with Compass in the U.S. and finally graced American shores with the 2002 release of Rules for Jokers. Gilmore's third album, 2003's Avalanche, was a much more daring effort for her, and the single "Juliet" earned her her first Top 40 hit in the U.K. A year later, Gilmore released a collection of cover songs entitled Loft Music. This self-released effort featured Gilmore's renditions of songs by the Buzzcocks, Paul Westerberg, Jimmy Cliff, and the Ramones. Songs from the Gutter (2005) gathered career-spanning cuts not previously available, as well as other hidden treasures from Gilmore's catalog of unreleased material. In August 2006, Gilmore issued the emotionally charged Harpo's Ghost, her first set of original material since Avalanche. Gilmore returned with the ultra-polished Liejacker to mixed reviews in 2008, and became a parent. In typical idiosyncratic fashion, she recorded the seasonal holiday collection Strange Communion, issuing it in 2009 and, in lieu of a new studio offering, released the half-acoustic/half-electric live set Recorded Delivery in 2010. In 2011 Gilmore returned to recording with partner and co-producer Nigel Stonier and co-producer/engineer Mike Cave for her 11th studio offering, Murphy's Heart, recorded both in Liverpool and in Ventura, California. The cast of 13 musicians for these sessions was her largest to date. Returning to the studio once again with Stonier, Gilmore set about to record 2011's John Wesley Harding, a complete reworking of the album by Bob Dylan. Gilmore followed this up with Don't Stop Singing, a specially recorded collaborative album with the late Sandy Denny. Two years later, after giving birth to her second son, Gilmore returned with 2013's Regardless. © MacKenzie Wilson © 2014 AllMusic, a division of All Media Network, LLC. | All Rights Reserved