My latest and my greatest- combined
My latest: Songs written because I’ve lived for some time without dying. Because I’ve traveled to countries where people have it tough; eaten danced and dreamed with them. Because I’ve been overwhelmed by moments, mystified, restored. Because I don’t want to be a kid any more. Because few people say what I think needs to be said when they start singing.
A double album!
My ‘greatest’: a retrospective. My fave recordings from four other albums along the way. Remastered… as they say, to sound even better than the originals. Surely not?
Read on and buy the physical double CD here.
Other side of the tracks
Background to the artist and songs for newcomers here.
Download Andy Thornton AGES 2020 one sheet
Check out tracks here (includes links to purchase)
More
The story so far...
Andy’s new album “Ages” is his fifth and is the first in 10 years… well it takes a lot to be “the greatest songwriter you never heard”.
It does what he has always done: track the encounters of his life in melody, mood and lyric such that their impact reaches the listener with beauty and force. “wonderfully mature intelligent songs…” said Maverick Magazine “makes an instant connection” Rock n Reel
Thornton believes in experiencing the breadth of life, and from that letting the music flow. This new album “Ages” is the epitome of that. In 2010, After Sunflower Girl, new love (and second child) he went on to become the Chief Executive of a national charity in London. This saw him traveling the world as a trainer in democratic activism and cultural relations, meeting activists from many countries in Asia and the Middle East, especially those in post conflict situations. These encounters come out in wide screen format in the new album.
And at the same time ‘Ages’ exposes the common story of learning to come to terms with getting older:
A second unique aspect of this album is the great variety of its arrangements, of which just about every single note was played and recorded by the artist himself.
“It’s a theme you seldom hear tackled positively in song ! Most people’s record collections are full of songs about being young and falling in love. A kind of ‘stage one’ life experience. I realised I was on stage three, and no one was singing about it. I was seeing the world, meeting interesting people, learning a lot about myself and about the human condition, but few people take that on. Only the folk tradition really takes life that seriously. But I’m not really a folk artist – so I find few people putting all that together with some kind of authentic voice…”
The resulting album is one of great breadth, depth and intimacy. It takes a hard look at the state of the world and returns with his typical compassionate frustration with injustice. Particularly injustice perpetrated by first world countries like ours.
No one is spared at times, but neither is anyone pronounced guilty. Rather, Thornton’s songs are a mirror on the world and on ourselves. How we respond is our business.
