Lake Poets - Lake Poets

Falls somewhere between Bright Eyes and John Martyn **** MOJOQuietly brilliant 8/10' UNCUTThe Lake Poets is a loose collective based around the formidable talents of singer/guitarist Marty Longstaff. His self-titled debut album was recorded in just three days in Nashville and is produced by Dave Stewart. That Longstaff recorded enough songs to seriously consider releasing a double album is testament to his dedicated work rate. That the 11 songs to make the final album are sparsely beautiful and set to see Longstaff mentioned in the same breath as John Martyn and Richard Thompson are credit to a startling ability to pare his finger-picked guitar playing to the bare essentials, just right for Longstaff's shimmering, pure vocals.'The Lake Poets' is certainly an album that's easy to get lost in, drawing listeners in with intimate songs rich in painting the big picture about love and mortality by way of a keen eye for the vivid small details of life. '1996' and its tale of a doomed childhood friendship is vivid enough for a novel; so too the crisp anecdotal thrust of the lilting 'Edinburgh'. The emotive first single 'Your Face' has racked up almost 5 million plays on Spotify. Having appeared at festivals including Glastonbury, Kendall Calling and T In The Park, and supported Ben Howard, Jake Bugg and Daughter, The Lake Poets live experience is equally as intense as the album, which can be attributed to Longstaff's desire to constantly change his shows in a quicksilver manner that Bob Dylan himself would approve of. The summer of 2016 has also seen TLP perform a series of headline shows in churches around the UK in a unique partnership with The Church Conservation Trust, a venture that will continue into the autumn and beyond.