rivers2cross

When the “Goodbye Farewell” EP was released in 2020 my thinking at the time was to possibly do a whole album with people singing my songs. But then I thought that I needed to stand up and perform them myself. Until recently I would never ever have had the balls to sing anywhere apart from in the car! I wouldn’t have thought I could have come to a point where an album is coming out of originally performed compositions.

“A New Dawn” has been for the most part a solo effort put together over the last 18 months or so. However, there are contributions that must be acknowledged.

The involvement of Steve ‘Smiley’ Barnard of The Alarm on a couple of tracks was an absolute highlight and it ultimately really pushed me on to take the other songs to a new level. In a perfect world I would have loved to have done the whole album with him, but my current circumstances conspired against that idea. His partner in crime on bass, Matt Round, really showed how the bass guitar should be done.

Backing vocalists!! It seems absurd that anyone would do this for me, especially two fine singers, in their own right, Billy Liberator and Steve Webster. On the “Friends” track the boys did me proud and just added that something extra to the song. Steve sings in several bands, Free’s Company, Joyrider and also for the James Martin Band. Billy Liberator released a superb album last year called “Companions” with album number two not too far away. Both these guys are also long-standing fans of The Alarm, but it’s only in recent years that I have got to know them along with so many others.

Although the album is punky, alternative and power pop in sound, there are times when I think how good a keyboard would be on certain tracks. I was able to call upon Jason Bradley, who plays for Braver Than Fiction, to play on “No Man’s Land”, the World War One ballad that’s on the album. It’s about time we actually met in person!

You can pre-order “A New Dawn” on Vinyl LP, CD and Download from www.rivers2cross.com It’s released on September 16th, and £500 has already be raised for Bowel Cancer UK, Love Hope Strength and The Bowel Movement. Thank you for the very generous support so far. I still have 73 Vinyl LPs and 40 CDs to try and sell so don’t be shy 😍