Thea Gilmore Announces New Album And May 2019 UK Tour

Thea GilmoreBob Harris favourite Thea Gilmore is releasing a new album and embarking on a May 2019 UK Tour which includes London’s Union Chapel. In this setting surely her spellbinding songs will sound their very best. Here’s what we know…

 Thea Gilmore releases “Small World Turning” on Friday 17th May 2019 – her first new collection of songs since 2017’s “The Counterweight” which was her 3rd successive top 40 album.

“Small World Turning” takes a sharp musical turning of its own, many may argue a new
commitment to what Thea Gilmore does best, as it’s an album with an unashamed folk
flavour.

An artist of enduring international acclaim (Bruce Springsteen regularly names her as a
favourite) and a justly revered lyricist, Gilmore’s musical settings have taken many ingenious
detours in recent years. “Murphy’s Heart” (2010) arrived with a buffed-up radio sheen, 2013’s
“Regardless” was luscious chamber pop and “The Counterweight” (2017) brought electronica
flavourings to the table.

“Small World Turning” nails its colours to a very different wall from the get-go. Acoustic guitars
are back to the fore, and a quintessentially rootsy array of instruments frame them – fiddles,
whistles, mandolins, tenor banjos are all in abundance.

Given the reverence in which Gilmore is held among contemporaries it will be no surprise that
UK folk royalty including Cara Dillon, Seth Lakeman, Sam Lakeman, Katriona Gilmore, Jamie
Roberts and BBC Radio 2’s Young Folk Award winner 2013 Ciaran Algar all step up to
contribute. Moreover the engine room of the record – which contains no traditional kit drums –
is a stellar and diverse Transatlantic rhythm section of Matt Owens (Noah And The Whale) and
Michael Blair (Tom Waits, Elvis Costello).

But “Small World Turning” is no hollow parade of the famous. As is ever the case with Thea
Gilmore, it’s the songs that define and dazzle, and the 11 new compositions on display are a
blend of melodic lilt and dark brooding choruses, with lyrics that repeatedly hold up a
magnifying glass to 2019 England and impale greed, bigotry, class divide and hoarded
wealth.

The opening “Cutteslowe Walls” sets the tone – said walls were an infamous divide which stood
for 20 years in Oxford last century, built to prevent luxury homeowners having to look at the
slums in their neighbourhood. The walls become an emblem which recurs, if not by mention by
implication, in several of the albums songs. 

“Where there’s a line down at the food bank …
Where sleeping bags are blocking doorways
You’ll see the shadow of the Cutteslowe Walls”

“Grandam Gold”, a phrase going all the way back to Geoffrey Chaucer in describing
hoarded wealth and the grip of misers on their gains, now lends its name to a pithy and
beautiful ballad on which Gilmore duets with Cara Dillon. Dillon also appears on the exquisite
“Don’t Dim Your Light For Anyone” taking a spine tingling whistle solo while Sam Lakeman sits in
on beautifully restrained piano.

A mother of two herself, Gilmore frames the album with 2 lullabies – a snippet of the traditional
“Mockingbird” and the unbearably lovely “Dreamers”, sung by a Mother aspiring to cross the
Mexican border with her child.

Elsewhere, the anthemic “The Fuse” raises both the tempo and the mood with its irresistible
chorus. “The Revisionist” targets the climate and repositioning of endemic racism ( “Throwing
hatred like confetti, drinking populism neat…”) … and “Karr’s Lament” – perhaps Gilmore’s most
beautiful song in a decade – sits with an almost unearthly serenity at the heart of the album.
A gifted and exceptional artist at the peak of her powers, Thea Gilmore has delivered a
vibrant and deeply resonant album, rooted in folk music but completely transcending any
genre related limitations.

In a tempestuous and changing social environment now is a time to state your allegiance. As
Thea and Cara Dillon sing over “Grandam Gold’s” closing bars ‘Accept what is simple or
defend what is right’.

 All songs written by Thea Gilmore except ‘Mockingbird’ (Trad arr. Thea Gilmore) and ‘The Fuse
(Let It All Come Down)’ (Thea Gilmore/Nigel Stonier). All songs produced by Nigel Stonier. 

In addition, Gilmore will support the release with a fifteen-date headline UK Tour in May 2019 which starts on Wednesday 15th March 2019 at Oran Mor, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom and finishes on Friday 31st May 2019 at Plough Arts Centre, Torrington, United Kingdom. 

A full list of dates, venues and ticket links can be found below. 

Pete Sargeant