Angie Palmer

Angie Palmer (* 1965 in Lancashire , England ) is a British folk singer and songwriter . She is often referred to as the "British Lucinda Williams " because of her spirited guitar playing and her present, rough voice .

Life

According to Angie Palmer, she “played and sang guitar all her life”. When she was 18, she traveled to mainland Europe with an old Spanish guitar to get around the world a little before studying art. For the next eight years she lived mainly in France and Switzerland. Among other things, she played as a street singer in the Paris metro , in bars, clubs and at small festivals in France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. Over the years that she spent in France and Switzerland, the singer developed her typical trademark: the very rhythmic style of playing on the acoustic guitar and a strong voice presence. About the genesis of her style, she later explained on her artist website: "People often register the aggressiveness of my playing style. Much of my style, however, results from sheer economy: it is simply easier to play that way."

In 1991 Angie Palmer returned to England. There she developed step by step into a professional musician. The highlight of her early musical career was a gig on the folk stage at the British Glastonbury Festival . For the next five years she lived in Brighton and played gigs alone and with various bands in the south of England. In 1995 she moved to the northwest corner of the country to Lancaster , from where she mainly undertook solo tours through the clubs in the north.

Angie Palmer's debut album, A Certain Kind of Distance , was written in 2000. Stylistically, it was strongly influenced by folk and alternative country . This impression was reinforced by the fact that the CD was recorded completely solo. On the second CD, Romantica Obscura from 2002, the singer and guitarist worked with additional musicians. In addition to the standard line-up of bass and drums, the cello, violin and congas were used occasionally. Overall, the sound of her second album was quieter and in many moments reminded of the American Joni Mitchell . The lyrics and music of Romantica Obscura were created in collaboration with the songwriter Paul Mason.

The third CD, Road , was recorded in West Orange. Stylistically, she marked a return to the stripped-down sound of her first album. Due to the electric instruments, Road got rougher and more rock than the two previous albums. The sound of Palmer's third album was strongly influenced by the new guitarist Mark Townson. Richard Curran joined the group on violin and mandolin as a further musician. The fourth album Tales of Light & Darkness , released in the summer of 2006, contained song interpretations of literary sources, including by John Steinbeck and Edgar Allan Poe . Acoustic guitar, the vocal presence of the singer and a stripped-down instrumentation were in the foreground as usual. The highlight of the CD, the catchy, fast track Fools Gold , was based on Bob Dylan's songs from the sixties in terms of style and performance .

Angie Palmer, who settled in Preston in 2001 , said she had written around 40 titles by then. The folk musician and singer was always present, especially at live gigs at smaller folk, rock and blues festivals such as the Burney Blues Festival, the Coine Blues Festival and a number of relevant open air events in the greater London area . On the occasion of her French tour in October 2006, the singer made several appearances in France, including in the capital Paris .

Style and reviews

Angie Palmer combines her folk and blues style, which is heavily influenced by street music and club appearances, with ambitious texts, which she writes either herself or together with Paul Mason. She names Bob Dylan , Joni Mitchell and the American bluegrass musician Gillian Welch as musical role models . The songs, arrangements and style of presentation are occasionally reminiscent of the New Country icon Mary Chapin Carpenter . Palmer's music, on the other hand, is deeply rooted in the blues. In addition to blues legends like Howlin 'Wolf and Willie Dixon as well as the guitarist John Martyn , she says, it was mainly striking women like Patti Smith , Bonnie Raitt and Rory Block who shaped her music.

Artists from different genres are also repeatedly used when comparing them in the specialist press. Because of the way she presents, which alternates between aggression and tenderness, she is sometimes referred to as the “British Lucinda Williams”. The author Garth Cartwright summed up in HMV Choice on the occasion of the album Roads : "She combines influences from Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan with her own distinctive sound". The British magazine Mojo finally described their sound "as if Joni Mitchell was playing on the arrangements of Robert Earl Keen ".

Discography

• A Certain Kind of Distance (2000; Akrasia)
• Romantica Obscura (2002; aKrasia )
• Road (2004; aKrasia)
• Tales of Light & Darkness (2006; aKrasia)
• Meanwhile, as Night falls (2008; aKrasia)
• Old Stick to Scare A Bird (2012; aKrasia)

Band (2006)

• Angie Palmer (voc, git, banjo)
• Steve Buckley (git)
• Richard Curran (vio, mand)
• Ollie Collins (b)
• Tim Franks (dr)

Web links

• The singer website (English)