I love your voice...beautiful...I love Nick Drakes work. You were so lucky to have seen him!

The River Song will be released on 22nd August 2011 and is taken from Josh's debut album 'Whisky And Wool'.

‘Whisky and Wool’ draws plenty of inspiration from Josh’s childhood. Although he was Devon born he grew up in Dorset, where unlike most acoustic singer-songwriters Josh was listening to Pearl Jam, Led Zeppelin Soundgarden and Alice In Chains. It wasn’t until Bray switched on the TV and saw Nick Drake performing “Riverman” and as Josh puts it “It all made sense”. Josh started down a path which encouraged him to investigate further and he soon became immersed in the whole 1970’s folk/rock sound, taking influences from Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, CSN, John Martyn, Dylan and Fairground Convention. These are the sounds and inspiration that so clearly echo throughout ‘Whisky and Wool’.

Josh picked up an old Spanish guitar which belonged to his late father and which he still plays with and began to teach himself. That detuned style he inherited from the British folk scene is still a significant part of his style.

Having dabbled in music for a while and having played local clubs, Josh decided to put music to one side for the time being, and went to study law at university. After graduating, he was all set to move to the US and work in human rights law for the charity Amicus, who support people on death row, however his friend persuaded him to give his music a go and since then he has never looked back. 


Josh Bray - The River Song

Growing up in Dorset, he spent his time listening to the likes of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin and Pantera. It wasn’t until Bray happened to switch on the TV a few years later, when he moved to Bristol to live with his brother, and heard the late Nick Drake  performing ‘Riverman’,  that suddenly it all made sense to him. Josh started down a path which encouraged him to investigate further, and he soon became immersed in 1970’s folk/rock, taking in Joni Mitchell, CSN and Neil Young as well as John Martyn, Fairport Convention, Bob Dylan and The Band. Whisky & Wool EP draws inspiration from Josh’s childhood and echoes his musical influences.
 
In the opening track ‘The River Song’, Bray’s vocals achingly meander, above the sleepy brushed percussion and bass, breaking through his thick warm acoustic guitar and effortlessly fading out to be replaced by harmonica and haunting pedal steel. ‘Bigger Than The Both Of Us’ is perhaps most reminiscent of Nick Drake with its intricate finger-picking and weaving, almost Kirby-esque string arrangements, while electric guitar and Bray’s blues and rock influences soak in on ‘Living Free’ and closing the EP is a live studio interpretation of Led Zeppelin’s ‘That’s The Way’.
 
Josh will be following up this EP with his debut album of the same name on 7th March 2011 which features the first three tracks of this EP. The album was recorded over two sessions, one in Truck Studios, run by the Bennet Brothers, members of the critically-acclaimed Oxford-based group Danny and The Champions, the other in London’s Apollo Control Studios by renowned producer Howard Gray, who’s worked with Tom Jones, Van Morrison, Jimmy Page, U2 and the Cure.
 


Josh Bray - The River Song

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