CD Description
'Tales Of Grime And Grit' is the debut album from Newquay based singer/songwriter Ruarri Joseph. Produced by Paul Reeve(Muse, Razorlight) the album sees Joseph deliver an album of upbeat stories about the good things in life while musically following in the footsteps of the likes of Elliot Smith, Jack Johnson and John Martyn. The lead single 'Tales Of Grime And Grit' is also included.
About the Artist
Ruarri Joseph - It's an unusual name (pronounced like 'brewery', in case you were wondering)
Think 'singer-songwriter' and you'll most likely picture a pale young man in a bedsit, head bowed in anguished introspection. Ruarri Joseph couldn't be more different. Eschewing the lovelorn angst of his peers, he deals in joy, not misery. In gossamer melodies, not gut-wrenching despair. Most of all, he writes about family, friends, good times, faith, hope. The ties that bind, not the pain that can drive us apart. "I'm not here to set the world to rights," he says, "I guess I write about the little things, the tiny details that make people unique." Meet him in person and you'll understand why. He's disarmingly upbeat -a scruffy, flip-flop-wearing 25 year-old with a thatch of unruly hair and a voice like scuffed leather. There's something old-fashioned about him, like a man born out of time. To hear him sing is to be transported back to a world of fragile, folk-inflected troubadours: Nick Drake, John Martyn, Robert Wyatt. It's the sound of a forgotten England. Yet it's also the sound of the future. Overlaid with the kind of just-so melodies that sound like you've known them forever, Joseph's gloriously laid-back acoustic lullabies - as blissful and carefree as the beaches of his native Newquay - will be the sun-dappled soundtrack to summer 2007. The path leading Joseph to this point has been a circuitous one. The son of a microbiologist and wannabe novelist, he was born in Edinburgh, before relocating to the tiny Cornish village of Callestick aged 4. It was an idyllic, picture postcard kind of place. After seven untroubled years, he and his family moved to Newquay, at which point two things changed. First, his parents split up. And second, Joseph started playing guitar. He sees it now as a pivotal moment in his life. "Songwriting suddenly became a really natural thing to retreat into," he explains. "I'm not saying I was some hopeless misfit, but at the same time I wasn't out playing football, or drinking with other kids. I wasn't Johnny Popular. So I just sat at home writing songs." It wasn't all acoustic balladry. Grunge was in full swing at this time, and Joseph has fond memories of shredding his vocal cords to anthems by Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins. At 17, having spent three years in New Zealand, he returned to Newquay and joined a series of local bands. Joseph was firmly on course for a future in music. However, his priorities abruptly changed in Summer 2000 with the birth of a daughter. Suddenly fatherhood responsibilities for a growing family - although Joseph was still only 19 at the time - meant that music ambitions had to be put on hold. He took jobs in nursing homes and bars, the next few years were punishing. "I almost gave up music," he says now. "There was just no money in it, and no time for it." "My daughter changed everything," he explains. "she inspired so many songs. One of them, Baby Finn, is going to be on the album, which I'm really pleased about. She made me more determined than ever to make music."
~ Newton Faulkner
~ Ruarri Joseph
~ Fleet Foxes
~ Elbow
~ Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
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