OUR MAN IN THE FIELD | Last Dance single cover
OUR MAN IN THE FIELD
LAST DANCE
new single
out 13.09.23
(In The Field Recordings)
included on
GOLD ON THE HORIZON
new album
out 24.11.23 (LP & CD) | 03.11.23 (digital)
Our Man In The Field is UK singer/songwriter and actor Alex Ellis, with assistance from a band that includes Henry Senior (pedal steel, dobro), Greg Bishop (drums, harmonies), Raul Biancardi (synth) and Luke Ydstie (bass). Plying a winning combination of indie-folk and Americana with significant soulful country vibes that nods to the likes of Ray LaMontagne, Damien Rice, Wilco, Ryan Adams and Lambchop, OMITF issued a well received debut album, ‘The Company Of Strangers’, in 2020 and wowed audiences promoting it when guesting for the likes of The Delines, playing festival dates and touring in their own right.
They have today announced the forthcoming release of a brand new album entitled ‘Gold On The Horizon’, produced by Tucker Martine (Modest Mouse, My Morning Jacket, Beth Orton, Roseanne Cash) and recorded in Portland, Oregon. The first single from it is ‘Last Dance’, which is built from a sonic template that recalls Hiss Golden Messenger (who recently had an album mixed by Martine), while Ellis relates a tale of witnessing the traumatic split of personal friends following an infidelity. One requests a quiet departure from the relationship (“If you’re leaving in the morning / Go before the sun comes up”), while the guilty party requests a shot at redemption (“If you’re leaving in the morning / Can I have one last dance”). The emotional push and pull of the lyric is offset by the song’s bright, upbeat feel, embellished with a country fiddle melody and oscillating synth line over a groovy backbeat and Ellis’ warm vocal timbre.
All twelve songs on the record are a collection of life observations and the urge to explore their universal meanings via Ellis’ fly-on-the-wall alter-persona. “I do think of Our Man In The Field as more of a character and not really even me,” he explains. “Something like a Jack Kerouac or an Albert Camus. A writer and a correspondent, a roving reporter but more like a TV version in the ‘70s; Hunter S Thompson but less guns and LSD. Mostly, I don’t want the listener to think about the songs as being mine or about me, it’s more about the story and the characters in them. They’re always about real people and hopefully that makes them relatable.”
OUR MAN IN THE FIELD | Alex Ellis 2023 photo
Our Man In The Field was the result of an epiphany. In 2014, Ellis found himself in hospital under observation for intense abdominal pains. Worryingly, a tumour was discovered, a similar growth having accounted for his father’s death in his 40s. As Ellis awaited treatment, he reflected on his dad’s life – hard work in a job he didn’t like and unable to enjoy the fruits of his labour – and realised he needed to make some changes to avoid the same fate.
Until then, Ellis had been an actor, with TV ads and other gigs keeping him afloat until the next audition, but nothing to catapult him to fame. Having just auditioned for one especially denigrating role, his health scare begged the question: ‘What do I want to do?’ And, what Ellis thought of while bored and anxious in his hospital bed wasn’t acting, but playing his guitar and the freedom and expression that songwriting offered. Upon his discharge and subsequent recovery, he began writing and creating his aesthetic and sonic identity.
Ellis had actually written his first songs as a football mad teen growing up in the north-east, but never took music seriously until moving to London and recording a few efforts that a friend sent to Tom Robinson, who played them on his BBC 6 Music show. This led to Ellis’ first live outings, followed by a return to the studio to make what became ‘The Company Of Strangers’.
OUR MAN IN THE FIELD | Gold On The Horizon album cover
OMITF now move up to a new level with ‘Gold On The Horizon’, with songs that range from raw and barren in ‘Come Back To Me’ – which showcases Ellis’ soulful vocal harmonies and a sparse arrangement of acoustic guitar and pedal steel – to the spacious mirror ball slow-dance of ‘Go Easy’, to the full, desert noir feel of horns, baritone guitar and backing harmonies that run through album opener ‘Feel Good’.
What informs Ellis is a lifetime of inspiration and the creative space to “wait for something magical to happen,” while he acknowledges that his music “is probably the result of listening to a lot of my parents’ records when I was a kid: Van Morrison, The Eagles, The Carpenters and the like. Then, a little later, buying my own stuff like Paul Weller, REM and The Bluetones, before going through the inevitable Dylan phase and ongoing Neil Young/Creedence obsession.”
OMITF will be promoting ‘Gold On The Horizon’ with an album launch show in London at The Slaughtered Lamb on 25th November (tickets HERE) and a full UK tour to follow. Dates will be announced in due course.
GOLD ON THE HORIZON
TRACKLISTING
1 Feel Good
2 Come Back To Me
3 L’Etranger
4 Silver Linings
5 Great White Hope
6 Go Easy
7 Glad To See You
8 Last Dance
9 How Long
10 The Road Interlude
11 Long Forgotten
12 The Road
“We were lucky enough to tour with Our Man In The Field, and all of us in The Delines became huge fans. Their new album is the best thing they’ve done so far….and that’s saying something. It’s currently on repeat in our van and is a true beauty of a record.”
Willy Vlautin – The Delines
OUR MAN IN THE FIELD | Alex Ellis 2023 photo