root salad Gren Bartley Band
From a duo to a solo to a band, he’s constantly evolving his music, discovers Sophie Parkes.
I
t’s the first Sunday in the new year. Many – most – are lying low, skint or hungover, dreading the first working Monday of 2014. Weather is miserable at best, flooded at worst. Good intentions come later. But singer and songwriter Gren Bartley doesn’t need to steel himself to write songs, to resolve to be more prolific. He’s already written two songs today. The previous day was reserved for his tax return, but the day before saw the birth of three brand new songs.
“It just flows. I remember the week it started, back in 2011. I’d always written bits and pieces, but never very much. I sup- pose I hadn’t thought of myself as a song- writer. But you reach a point as a musician where you decide where you need to go next, what you need to become,” he says. “Tom [Kitching] and I were about to record a new album and I realised it was songwrit- ing that I wanted to do, to focus on.”
That period resulted in his 2012
album, Songs To Scythe Back The Over- grown, closely followed by last year’s Win- ter Fires, both on Fellside Recordings. He is currently preparing a new album which he anticipates will be out later this year.
“I’m so lucky in that I can pick and choose songs for albums; I’m not going into the studio with the bare minimum any more. My first album with Tom Kitching was called Rushes [2007] for a reason: we were getting loads of gigs and we needed a CD to send out and give to people. We just put down the first fourteen songs we’d learnt to play,” he remembers. “Now I’ve got the luxury of choice. There were a cou- ple of songs meant for Songs To Scythe Back The Overgrown which didn’t fit, but thankfully found a home on Winter Fires. I have a feeling that a couple that didn’t make Winter Fires might fit the new one.”
The ‘new one’ isn’t just new in its material: Gren now has his own self-titled band, consisting of Sarah Smout on cello, Karen Jones as percussionist, and his part- ner, the enchantingly named Julia Disney. All three new recruits also provide vocals, much to Gren’s delight.
“It’s come together really naturally. Julia and I started playing together and I was actively looking for new musicians to work with. It was Julia who suggested Sarah and Karen and it really works,” he says. “Initially we got together and walked through some of my existing material and found that some of it could be adapted, but some of it really couldn’t. But now I can write songs with them in mind, imagining the strings and the vocal harmonies.”
Shortly, the band will embark on their first rehearsals for the forthcoming album at a cottage in Yorkshire.
But, unsurprisingly given his track
record, that’s not all Gren has on his mind for 2014. There’s a number of side projects on the horizon which he can’t really reveal at this stage, but he does acknowledge one will incorporate a world music explo- ration, while one is likely to be headed firmly for the blues.
“I love performing in new styles and learning more about other traditions or genres; it creatively gives me new ideas. So as a songwriter and guitarist, I’ve always looked to America and England for inspiration, but when I listen to some- thing new it can’t help but inspire the songs I write,” he says.
It was the blues that first encouraged Gren to pick up the guitar. At fifteen, a friend had begun learning the guitar and, moved to follow suit, he was surprised to find a dusty old guitar secreted in a bin bag in the family loft. His mum had bought it from The Harvesters with the intention to learn, but never had.
“When I was younger, I listened to pop, no folk at all. A friend’s dad had Dylan records which we listened to before he brought round a Kelly Joe Phelps
T
record and that was it. He became my hero for years after that: I took apart his albums and learnt them note for note. It’s how I learnt to fingerpick, how I learnt about the blues,” Gren recalls.
hough Gren moved to university in Loughborough, it was the guitar which became his focus. His academic career in tatters, he sated his musical appetite with gigging – both playing the blues standards he had learnt, and listening. It was at a folk club in Loughborough, the Pack Horse, that he met Tom Kitching and formed their popular duo.
“We’ve gigged for six or seven years, and although we played some gigs last year, we’re moving on to other things: Tom is busy with Pilgrims’ Way and I’ve got so many other things I’d like to pursue,” he explains. “But we’ll always play together; it’s something we’ll always come back to.”
So now it’s just a case of keeping the songs coming. And when he hasn’t an offi- cial outlet like an album, he’ll still find a way – like last year’s download-only, self- release. Keep an eye on his web site.
www.grenbartley.com F 21 f
Photo: Rebekah Jane
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