Charlie Winston - Hobo on CD

Description

Review Charlie Winston recently featured on Radio 4’s Today programme: “Pop singer bloke from Suffolk is huge in France, but can’t get arrested here”. As is so often the case with a subject other than politics or economics, they didn’t quite get hold of the story. This album has spent many weeks in the French top ten and has gone platinum. Its first single, Like a Hobo, made number one over there in April. Understandably, it has a strong Euro flavour, though mercifully falling short of a strong Eurovision flavour. It is odd, the way an artist can capture the imagination of one country but not his own. Murray Head, back in the 70s, wrote Say It Ain’t So, Joe – a wonderful song, piped in every bistro, but virtually ignored here. So why the French but not us? The two singers both have a lightness and agility of the voice, but that’s where the similarity ends: Head was really an actor who dabbled in song, while Winston is clearly a full-blooded musician. Hobo’s production is organic and fun, Winston’s vocal refreshingly untreated. There’s a light agility about his songs too, ranging from the straightforward chick songs – I Love Your Smile stirs thoughts of Randy Newman collaborating with a bunch of New Orleans’ finest, and Soundtrack to Falling in Love – to silliness on My Life as a Duck and Kick the Bucket, songs which might prove just a little too twee for domestic consumption. In fact that could be it – maybe that tweeness, combined with the cheeky chappie image (stubble, frayed fedora hat), might be a bit too much for our Anglo-Saxon scepticism. The outstanding track, and the most UK friendly, is Calling Me. Here, Winston has avoided over-arranging, sticking just with a guitar, some fabulous harmonica playing from Benjamin Edwards and a flutter of keyboards. Where occasionally style has triumphed over substance on this album, here quality shines through. It would be a loss for us if Winston were to be consigned to the list of artists who only cracked it abroad, though he shouldn’t really complain: euros buy yachts just as easily as pounds. --Nick Barraclough Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window Product Description A platinum selling artist in France, Charlie Winston heads home with his debut UK album - Hobo. Every now and then a British artist finds success abroad before their homeland discovers their talent. In the case of Suffolk musician Charlie Winston it is the French who have first embraced his unique blend of quirky alternative folk-rock-pop sending his debut single 'Like A Hobo' to the top of the charts on its release in January. The child of musician parents and brother of folk singer Tom Baxter, Charlie grew up in a hotel in Suffolk through which passed an endless procession of itinerant artists, orchestras, actors and thespians. Charlie developed a deep love for the performing arts and entertainment whilst nurturing his musical talents. After several years of busking his way around Europe, writing music for theatre and dance productions, and playing in bands Charlie decamped to Paris when Peter Gabriel's Real World Records licensed 'Like a Hobo' to the French label Atmosphériques - Winston had left an EP at Gabriel's flat while babysitting - and within weeks he was at the top of the charts and being declared a national superstar by a nation that had fallen for his soulful voice and instantly catchy melodies.