Davey Woodward has done it all, musically speaking. From the brilliant Brilliant Corners’ diverse palette of indie, pop, country, rock ’n’ roll, post-punk and trade-mark humour through the equally delicious Experimental Pop Band, solo albums and as part of alt-guitar band Karen, there are few genres which he hasn’t wandered through, always putting his own spin on things always keeping things fresh and interesting.
Here he takes the troubadourish, singer-songwriter route, coats it in shimmering guitar, soaks it in openness and honesty, and presents to the listener it through a wonderfully down to earth, indie filter, evoking such musical deities as Sharon Van Etten, Robert Forster and His Bobness himself. (That’s Mister Zimmerman to you!)
Warm Hands comes ahead of the band’s second album, Love and Optimism, which sees Woodward continue to use the streets and events of his hometown of Bristol as a backdrop. A place which has always gone it’s own way musically and which continues to make the headlines for all the right reasons, most noticeable with the very public removal of a statue of one of the cities benefactors and slave traders, sparking some necessary and complex debates.
And that is what any good music should do too and although he admits that the album to follow might not be musically what people expect from someone long associated with an “indie” sound, whatever that might be in the modern age, it promises to be an album which has much to say, big themes told from a very personal perspective. You can’t ask for much more than that.
