Thea Gilmore’s new album is released on May 19th 2008
Thea Gilmore finally emerged last year from a lengthy stint in rehab and a six week sojourn in a Buddhist retreat in the Hollywood hills during which she spoke to no-one but a Brahman guru and a reporter from Hello! Magazine.
On returning to life in the real world, she emerged with her most shockingly intimate and deeply personal set of songs yet, working with her regular team of co-writers. Recording soon began, and a “back-to-basics” approach was adopted, with tracks being shared out equally between four different production houses.
The pressure on Thea to follow up her last album has been immense: fans will recall that said album was recorded “by accident”: Thea was unintentionally caught on camera humming her songs whilst walking around a landfill site in North Devon, and turned on her computer the following morning to find that without any professional marketing involvement some 32 million people had logged on to the resulting images and learned her lyrics by heart. However, success has not spoiled her. She eschews any trappings of fame and indeed seems destined to bump up against the tragic, soul bruising side of life. Only recently she was forced to part company with her personal shopper following a falafel related incident. She has emerged from her own personal hell stronger, wiser and impossibly rich.
The above paragraph is untrue.
"Untrue" is of course a relative term in the flexible world of PR.
Since her initial breakthrough and her acclaim as “the wordsmith of her generation” (The Independent, 2004) Thea Gilmore has constantly been strongly advised by movers in the UK Music Industry to “Give the people what they want”.
In the age of the publicity machine, the great behemoth of marketing that greases palms, blurs boundaries and oils the wheels of the music business often the main objective is to TELL people what they want. But - beyond an affection for Monty Panesar - Thea has never been into spin. So, she is sticking to her favourite trick.. to give the people what SHE wants. And to tell the truth about it.
So Thea’s new record is called “Liejacker”.
And what is she giving “the people”?
Twelve songs worth of the literate, spiky melodic writing for which she has received global acclaim. Musically, a return to the more stripped down, acoustic vibe of early records such as “Rules For Jokers”. The legendary Joan Baez - one iconic figure who has lined up as a Thea fan for years (Bruce Springsteen and Martha Wainwright are others) makes a guest appearance on the album, duetting on “The Lower Road”.
Dave McCabe of the Zutons does the same on ‘Old Soul”, a song Thea wrote exactly a week before giving birth to her first child.
Acclaimed US singer/songwriter Erin McKeown supplies beautiful harmonies on the uplifiting waltz “Dance In New York”, and also featured on the record are Steve Wickham of the Waterboys, and noted UK roots musicians John Kirkpatrick (Richard Thompson band) and Laura Reid (Kathryn Williams band). Thea’s long term musical partner Nigel Stonier plays a variety of acoustic instruments including guitar, dulcimer, mandolin, melodica and ukulele. Thea herself features more prominently than ever before as an instrumentalist on the record, and recorded the bases to many of the tracks at her famously small home studio. She, Nigel and engineer Mike Cave completed the production of the album at the Loft, Liverpool. And at the last stages, Thea's hugely popular contribution to the Liverpool No. Ones record - her cover of the Dead Or Alive hit "You Spin Me Round" has been added as a bonus track.
And that's about the truth of it.
