“Guitarist with that bravely experimental trio Lau, Kris Drever has all the makings of a solo celebrity”
THE GUARDIAN
One of Scotland’s finest and most acclaimed songwriters Kris Drever shares his new single “Catterline” on March 28th and announces a new album “The Best of” (released by Reveal Records) May 19. A UK tour with his own band includes a headline show at London’s Union Chapel on June 13th is on sale now.
The expansive (36 track) compilation album features new songs (“Catterline”, “Punchbag” and “Dust In Light”) whilst collecting together key songs from Drever’s solo albums (“Black Water”, “Mark The Hard Earth”, “If Wishes Were Horses” and “Where The World Is Thin”) alongside choice cuts from his collaborations and recordings with Aidan O’Rourke and Martin Green as pioneering folk trio Lau.
Since the release of his acclaimed 2020 album “Where The World Is Thin” Kris has been busy playing major shows with Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart, Sekou Keita and Jackie Morris for their Lost Spell Songs project (Thirty Tigers, 2021), won yet another BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Original Song (see the band performing Scapa Flow 1919 on Youtube) won Album of The Year at the Scots Trad Music Award 2021, duetted with Aoife O’Donovan and toured with Lau and Rachel Baiman before returning to the studio in early 2023 to record the new songs for this compilation album.
About the new single “Catterline” Kris says..
“The song itself is about the wonderful artist Joan Eardley and her relationship with the little fishing village of Catterline, near Stonehaven. Her paintings are such a perfect description of the place; it seemed irresistibly elegant to echo them. I knew a little about her from a TV dramatization of her life (which I’ve never been able to find and which no one else remembers) that I either watched or dreamed up in the ‘90s or ‘00s, but the research for this song really brought her into focus for me. I’m in awe of the way she gave herself to her artistic purpose and wish I had even an iota of the concentration levels she invested in her work. I used her own words where possible to make this song.”
“The Best of” album features many incredible guest performances from over 17 years of recordings including: Boo Hewerdine, Eddi Reader, Kate Rusby, Ian Carr, Yola, Heidi Talbot, Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), Roddy Woomble (Idlewild), Louis Abbott (Admiral Fallow), Andy Cutting (Leveret), Euan Burton, Rachel Lightbody, Elysian Quartet, John McCusker, Tim O’Brien, Megan Henderson (Breabach), Éamonn Coyne and Joan As Police Woman.
About collaboration and his first Kris Drever Band tour Kris says…
‘Collaboration has always been at the heart of my enjoyment of music. I love the freedom of heading out on my own; I love the challenge of trying to realise full arrangements with just a guitar and a vocal but, for me, nothing comes close to building those invisible cathedrals with my comrades. The excitement of real musical dialogue is overwhelming: the knowledge that something is happening in front of me that can’t ever be exactly replicated is fascinating and frankly, even after all these years as a musician, miraculous.
For the last few years, I’ve been working with a really special group of musicians, mostly in the studio – although we have made it out into the light very occasionally to perform. It’s time now, though, to share these wonderful people and the experiences they create with as wide an audience as possible, because they’re fabulous.
Louis Abbott is a multi-instrumentalist (drums, guitars, keys) and vocalist who is best known for his work as the front man of Scottish Indie collective Admiral Fallow; Euan Burton is my long time co-producer (studio adult) and absolutely stellar double bassist; and Rachel Lightbody is a highly prized Jazz singer who also excels in her work as a backing vocal artist.
Having gotten together increasingly frequently in recent times for various TV and online performances, we’ve worked up a broad variety of my own material. We’ve found a route into songs from across my back catalogue, and in many cases opened them up in ways that I could never have figured out on my own. The upshot of all this is that it’s time to take this fresh sound and retrospective collection on the road.’
