MULTI-AWARD-WINNING SINGER SONGWRITER IAN SHAW RELEASES BONUS TRACK ‘YEARS’, FT. MATT KENT
NEW STUDIO ALBUM ‘GREEK STREET FRIDAY’ OUT NOW
LISTEN TO GREEK STREET FRIDAY HERE
“Shaw at his funkiest (and funniest)”
– Classic Rock Magazine (8/10)
London November 24th 2023 – Following the release of his new album Greek Street Friday, multi-award-winning singer-songwriter Ian Shaw releases a video for the track ‘Years’. A touching duet with singer Matt Kent, ‘Years’ was originally the bonus track on the vinyl edition of Greek Street Friday.
Lyrically, ‘Years’ follows a conversation between two people, two generations apart, who have shared similar experiences of hope, love and loss. Sometimes funny, sometimes achingly moving, the inspiration for ‘Years’ came about when Ian chanced upon a show Matt was playing, “I was walking home from Soho when I spotted a friend having a cigarette outside Gerry’s in Dean Street. He immediately told me to go inside and check out this young American guy who had a basement chock-full of drunk Friday people completely enraptured. I was hooked. Later, Matt and I got talking and I resolved to write a song for us to duet on. When the Greek Street Friday album was under way, a song about music, memory and a deep conversation between two singers, generations apart was a must.”
Matt joined Ian on stage for the song’s inaugural live performances at Ian’s 4 sold out Ronnie Scott’s shows in September, where it became a show highlight due to the chemistry of their back and forth. Utterly charming audiences, that same chemistry has been captured on video by the Canadian director, Jesse Cooper, whose minimalist visuals give the lyrics an impact that could only be experienced when the song is performed together.
Soulful, funky and bold, the songs from the new album draw inspiration from Shaw’s early musical and lyrical influences — Bowie, Steely Dan, Al Jarreau, early Elton John, Billy Joel – to create 11 autobiographical portraits of people and places: 1980s London, New York, loving and losing, basement bars, poets, friendships, lovers, near-escapes and far-away places. The iconic Ronnie Scott’s was naturally chosen as the host for the first performances of the album on earlier this year.
As an “utterly brilliant” (Time Out) mainstay of the British music and comedy circuit, Ian has never been one to conceal an often-outspoken view on injustice and equality and details his personal experiences for audiences to share. ‘Greek Street Friday’ sees him do so with typical poetic frankness, as well as pay homage to friends and icons, and muse on our place in a complicated world. Whilst the album’s main focus is a collection of partially autobiographical vignettes, Ian has also chosen to include a new take on a favourite song from one of his musical idols, ‘Blinded By The Hunt’ by Rickie Lee Jones.
The first single, ‘To Be Held,’ has its title inspired by a Truman Capote interview with Dick Cavett, and which later expands into a beautiful tribute to lost friends, the power of connections, imperfections and navigating the strangeness and beauty of being alive on what Ian describes as “this beaten-up planet of ours”. Elsewhere on the album, Ian delves into the complexities of life in London. Album closer ‘We Stopped Talking’, inspired by Robert Elms’ book ‘Memoir of a Shape-Shifting City’ laments the way Britain’s politics permeates the capital’s culture “It addresses the heinous way the UK deals with asylum-seekers, something Elms is passionate about,” Ian explains.
Expanding his jazz foundations to the realms of blues-rock and pop, ‘Greek Street Friday’ brings to mind shades of classic 21st century songwriters such as Little Feat, Steely Dan, Randy Newman, and of course Rickie Lee Jones. Co-written and produced with Jamie Safir (Kylie, Birdy, Will Young), and recorded at Livingston and Cowshed Studios, the album features an all-star band of session players, including drummer Ian Thomas (George Michael, Van Morrison, Céline Dion), guitarist David Preston (Melody Gardot, Curtis Stigers) and saxophonist Iain Ballamy (Everything But The Girl, Hermeto Pascoal, Loose Tubes).
‘Greek Street Friday’ tracklisting:
1 People Who Go Ta-dah! – Shaw/Safir
2 Greek Street Friday – Shaw/Safir
3 Falling Uphill – Shaw/Safir
4 George – Safir
5 Jackie’s Blues – Shaw/Safir
6 To Be Held – Shaw/Safir
7 Say A Prayer For Baby Blue – Shaw/Safir
8 Little World – Shaw/Safir
9 Blinded By The Hunt – Rickie Lee Jones
10 Years – Shaw (Bonus track on CD only)
11 We Stopped Talking – Shaw/Safir