ATB favourites combine for a 2-in-1 special treat.
Release Date: 15th July 2022
Label: Hudson Records
Formats: Digital
Shetland singer-songwriter Jenny Sturgeon is no stranger to these pages. We raved about Huam, the album she released back in early 2020 with her band, Salt House and we rhapsodized over the same band’s Working For Zeus EP when it hit the racks back in December. Not to forget her The Living Mountain album that’s nearing two years old. Likewise, we’re big fans of Southend’s Americana troubadour MG Boulter and particularly of his vivid evocations of life in British seaside towns that made last year’s Clifftown and his recent follow-up EP, A Shadow Falls on New Brighton such favourites of ours. And now these two Hudson Records labelmates have got together, despite living just about as far apart as it’s possible to get whilst still being able to watch Coronation Street!
In fact, the duo began an online writing collaboration in the early months of this year and Flint Knapped is the first recorded fruit of that collaboration. The song is inspired by a habit that, I know that I – and suspect that many of our readers – often yield to whilst out walking in the countryside; that’s picking up “dusty keepsakes” – attractive bits of rock in particular – and storing them on windowsills and bookshelves around the home. Our house is full of them! The song’s lyrics combine Jenny’s and MG’s love of history, nature and “Staring at the night sky.”
The instrumentation is fairly sparse; MG takes the lead vocal and adds guitar and lap steel. Jenny chips in with some lovely harmony vocals and ethereal keyboard touches and the whole thing is mixed together by Hudson’s very own Andy Bell. Flint Knapped is a lovely, dreamy, gentle song with a delightfully pastoral feel – a song that I can’t imagine anyone disliking but which I do imagine could become a strong favourite of anyone who takes the trouble to listen. Flint Knapped is highly recommended and I, for one, am eagerly awaiting the next installment from the Sturgeon/ Boulter school of collaboration.
Flint Knapped can be ordered here.
Watch the video to Air and Light, a track from Jenny Sturgeon’s second solo album, 2020’s The Living Mountain, here:
Jenny Sturgeon Online: Website /Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / YouTube
MG Boulter Online: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram
If you would like to keep up with At The Barrier, you can like us on Facebook here, follow us on Twitter here, and follow us on Instagram here. We really appreciate all your support.
Categories: Single Review
