31 May 08 Rockferry

In my spare time, when I’m away from the computer, I like to relax with either a good book, or some good music.

Of course, one’s tastes in either are very subjective; I tend to prefer non-fiction, and science, history, and geography when reading; and my tastes in music are fairly wide, covering classical, country, folk, rock, soul, and jazz.

It’s difficult to give any one specific genre, and I can’t ever truly name favorites – it really depends what mood I’m in at the time, when it comes to my choice of listening.

This afternoon, while doing some work, I was listening to Paul Gambacinni on BBC Radio Two. I wasn’t listening all the time, as I was talking as well, and concentrating too. One track caught my ear enough to listen intently afterwards to catch the name of it.

It’s called Warwick Avenue, and it’s off the debut album from Duffy entitled Rockferry

Duffy [born Aimee Anne Duffy on June 1st 1984 in Nefyn, Gwynedd, Wales], is a Welsh female soul singer-songwriter. She signed with A&M Records in 2007

During late November 2007, she performed on the excellent BBC2 television show “Later with Jools Holland”, which resulted in a second appearance on his show, well his Hootenanny, which has seen the New Year in great musical style for the past few years.

On the show she performed with soul legend Eddie Floyd. She came back a third time in February this year, and performed three tracks from the album, which was released in March 2008. Duffy is the first Welsh female to achieve a number one pop single in the past 25 years.

As befits an album that begins with ‘Rockferry’, a mournful, slightly unsettling tale of moving on, and ends which ‘Distant Dreamer’, a soaring epic that finds Duffy contemplating “all the things I’d like to do with my life”, Rockferry is a musical journey that’s both sad and stirring, and is in a largely retro-soul style.

I thoroughly recommend it.

Tags: aimee, bbc, bbc radio two, classical country, country folk rock, debut album from, duffy, genre, geography, good music, nefyn gwynedd, non fiction, rockferry, science history, singer songwriter, soul singer, spare time, tastes, wales, warwick, welsh