Wooltone Rob Clarke ventures into shuffling blues, noir chamber pop and chanson-tinged psychedelia with this 3-track maxi-single – a taster for his forthcoming 4^th solo album.

Release Date:  Out Now

Label: Wooltone

Formats: CD / Digital

Merseyside’s multi-faceted singer-songwriter Rob Clarke is an old friend of ours, although he’s been off our radar somewhat recently.  Indeed, he last came to our attention was almost two years ago when the latest album – Putting The L In Wooltones – from Rob’s band, The Wooltones, swept across my desk and brightened up a cold, dark January day with its heady mix of Merseybeat, late 60s psychedelia and Scouse humour.  It’s an album that, even today, is never far from my turntable.

Rob is one of those fortunate souls capable of turning his talents in a multiplicity of directions.  He’s equally at home with acoustic folky material, rock and psychedelia and, whenever he steps up to front his ‘other’ band, The Brown Bears, he shows us that he’s equally comfortable doling out generous helpings of authentic Nashville country tunes.  However, it looks like on Rob’s forthcoming album, Blues Beats And Brel, we’ll be seeing yet another facet of his dodecahedral talent. Rob explains: “After a series of band albums, it seemed like a good idea to try another solo thing but with some new influences.  So, here comes Blues Beats And Brel.  It’s a stripped-back solo recording on a diet of old blues records, beat poetry and Jacques Brel accordion sandwiches as I struggle to make sense of the world outside…”  Keep an eye on these pages – we’ll be having a listen to Rob’s new album as soon as it hits the airwaves – but, in the meantime, his 3-track maxi single, also titled Blues Beats And Brel, is a taster for the treats to come.

The trademark light-hearted sounds that we’ve grown to love from The Wooltones are replaced (temporarily, Rob assures us) with something a little darker.  Drawing on influences such as Jacques Brel, Lee Hazlewood, Serge Gainsbourg, Scott Walker and Tom Waits, Rob has taken the opportunity to delve into delta blues, noir chamber pop and chanson-tinged psychedelia, and this 3-track maxi-single gives us an enticing taste of each.  And, helped along by some wonderfully bluesy and jazzy piano from Fran Ashcroft and Jo Powell’s atmospheric Streets-of-Marseilles accordion, it sounds like Rob has come up with yet another winning formula.

The Blues comes first.  She’s A Mean is a tasty slice of genuine delta blues, complete with false start, broody acoustic guitar, a rhythm section that consists entirely of Rob’s right foot and a familiar story of an unfaithful partner who “messes around town.”  The picture is completed when Fran’s delightful bluesy piano cuts in and Rob bids his partner “So long – gonna leave you behind.”

The Beats are next.  Cheapskate is a spoken word piece that could believably have been torn straight from the works of Adrian Henri or Brian Patten.  To a soulful, bass-heavy guitar backing, Rob delivers his stream-of-consciousness musings that recount the sights and events around him.  Fran’s piano this time is deliciously jazzy and Rob manages – for the first time in any song that I’ve heard this year – to give Tipp-Ex correction fluid a mention.  Cheapskate is one of those songs that will yield something new every time you hear it – it’s a song to get closely involved with.

And, finally – Jacques Brel takes his turn.  Jo Powell picks up her accordion for closing track Tik Tok and transports us immediately to the side streets and dingy alleyways of Paris or Marseilles – not as spiritually far away from Liverpool as you might at first imagine.  The Tik Tok of the song’s title refers not to the increasingly ubiquitous social media app, but to the passage of time, and Rob’s lyrics reflect the feeling of lonely desolation that intensifies as the clock ticks on before guitar and accordion slow right down and time stops.

As an appetizer, Blues Beats And Brel (the maxi single) has certainly whetted my appetite.  Over to you, Rob – when will the main course – Blues Beats And Brel (the album) be served??

Watch the official video to Tik Tok, a track from the maxi-single, here:

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