I’ve been meaning to give a shout out to Tristan Mackay. He was the support act for The South when they played at the Southend Palace Theatre a few weeks ago. Tristan is a singer songwriter who turned to busking during university to help pay the bills. This continued when he started work but he found that he could make more money from busking than he could in his low paid job and so he decided to do it full time. He had a lucky break when he was signed by award winning producer Martin Levan who produced his first album – Out along the Wire. He made this with help from some top notch musicians which includes Paul Carrack playing Hammond.
Tristan had great style and a fantastic signing voice to go with his trusty beaten up old guitar (that I read about beforehand on his twitter feed) and he sang half a dozen songs off Out Along the Wire and some of his forthcoming new album. I purchased the debut album (which Tristan signed for me) and his Radio Sampler EP promoting his new album before The South came on and I really like them.
I can hear loads of influences in there including Van Morrison, Rod Stewart, Will Young (he’ll hate me for that) and my daughter says James Blunt too (he’ll hate her as well) and all the songs are orginal, well crafted with great lyrics and I’ve been listening to both discs a lot. I’m really looking forward to his new Album due out next year. Its hard to single out individual tracks as they are all so good however Last Love and Million Little Things are probably my favourites.
You can find out more about Tristan on his website at http://tristanmackay.com/ and you can follow him on twitter at @tristanmackay.
If you are looking for a Christmas present for a music lover who likes great non-mainstream music then Out Along the Wire is definitely worth getting. Its an exceptional LP and you can purchase it from his website here http://tristanmackay.com/products-page/
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