duggup

Artist: Thea Gilmore
Website: http://www.theagilmore.com/
Track Name: ToTheBone
Playback: mp3/flash
Download?: Yes

Early this year Ian rang up and asked me if I had heard of Thea Gilmore (I hadn’t) as he had just scored his latest copy of Uncut magazine and she was one of the featured artists. A quick once ’round the web and I was sold, this woman was awesome.

Thea has to be one of the best kept secrets in music, a fiercely independent artist (she has knocked back offers from four of the five major labels in the UK) she aspires to retain control of her music.

First stroll over to www.myspace.com/theagilmore and start listening to the songs on offer there. You will find a copy of “To The Bone” there for download.

Then head to http://www.theagilmore.com/ and near the bottom hit the play button and listen to Mainstream. This is an absolute killer track.

Last week Thea Gilmore released her new album “and there was great rejoicing in the land”. She did a couple of “live to airs” for the BBC Radio 2.

First Up was Contessa,

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which has single written all over it and she closed out the show with Call Me A Darling.

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A song which called to mind echoes of Bruce Springsteen’s Thunder road and allows her killer band to shine.

Here is some of the hype…

Frequently acclaimed by both press and pundits as the finest UK singer/songwriter of her generation, Thea Gilmore has for the last seven years blazed a trail of quality and artistic independence. Oxfordshire born Thea, who has collaborated and shared stages with some of musics most revered names including the Waterboys, Joan Baez, Steve Earle, Martha Wainwright and Beth Orton, is now set to end what is an (for her at least) unprecedented three year gap between releases with her highly anticipated new album “Harpo’s Ghost”.

Thea recorded her debut album aged just 17 and then entered a spell of productivity which, in the four and a half years from January 1999 to August 2003, saw her record and release six albums including four official releases and two cult albums which were only intended for internet release but which have long since been available in the shops. In 2001, with the release of Rules For Jokers, she hit some kind of national nerve and garnered some attendant airplay but it wasnt until 2003s Avalanche that Thea finally began to make significant waves. Avalanche became Radio 2s Album Of The Week and spawned two hit singles including her first certifiable Top 40 hit Juliet. Thea has gathered countless plaudits over the years

Thea Gilmore’s songs have lyrics that have hooks that drive deep into your head. She covers life, love, sex, death, politics and wars and all this delivered with an honesty that will break your heart.

So your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to head down to your favourite shop (Hello Basement) and get yourself a copy of “Harpo’s Ghost” and as much of her back catalogue as your pocket can bear. You won’t regret it.

UPDATE: Basement just got my money and I have the CD. It’s a ripper.