Tom Clelland is a fine singer, songwriter and guitar player; slightly country, slightly folky, slightly bluesy. Tom is joined by pedal steel, dobro, mandolin and bass. Songs, life and experience. Released on *Whistleberry, a new Songwriters' Cooperative Record Label
*Songwriters Robin Laing, Peter Nardini and Tom Clelland formed Whistleberry Songwriters' Cooperative with the aim of specialising in Scottish based songwriting, starting with theirown CD's. It's all for the love of the craft of songwriting and the power of song as a medium. Through organisations like the New Makars Trust and songwriter groups across Central Scotland, they have worked with lots of budding songwriters. The plan is to bring in other artists and to work on diverse projects
Media Reviews
This album will make you smile
A beguiling approach that nods towards Austin ... in its relaxed storytelling. This album will make you smile
12 carefully crafted songs that showcase his shy, gentle, sometimes almost spoken word style of singing and his able, though never showy finger picking guitar style ...
"Lanark-based Tom Clelland's late flowering career as a singer-songwriter continues with a second album featuring 12 carefully crafted songs that showcase his shy, gentle, sometimes almost spoken word style of singing and his able, though never showy finger picking guitar style ... "The wide-eyed opener, Bands has a JJ cale feel. The carefree title track recalls John Hartford's gentle on My Mind and the darker Sky Like a Hammer with its suitably lowering string section is in the British picking tradition of Jansch, McTell and Chapman. Each song, however has Clelland's own stamp of quiet authority too. "
The strength of this record is the atmosphere that is created - like well turned wood there is attention to the craft
The strength of this record is the atmosphere that is created - like well turned wood there is attention to the craft: ‘Bands’ has a hushed compressed sound, like a room that is only four feet high, ‘Sky Like a Hammer’ has guitar chords that are played as though there is velvet on the fingers, and even the mandolin on ‘Blisters and Cracks’ is reined in from its normal yapping brashness. ... ( and on) ‘A Day Like This’ ... some pedal steel (muted of course) soft as merino wool - you can’t help thinking of Arran sweaters - the songs are blanket warm. The celebratory ‘Stay Young’ almost manages to get you up out of the chair with its jaunty plucking, the hushed reverent tones fitting perfectly with the anti-war sentiment of ‘The Wind, She Changed’ or the elegiac ‘Stormclouds at a Distance’.
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