We’re honoured to welcome critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Tom McRae to Ramsgate on Saturday 28th September!
His confessional, self-titled debut appeared in 2000, earning him comparisons to Nick Drake and Bob Dylan. The Mercury and Brit nominated artist now returns with his 9th album, celebrating the release with some special solo shows…
“Tom McRae is an enduring outsider… middle age and exile have only sharpened his songwriting” – The Standard
Tom McRae’s 9th studio album is an album of duets with some of his favourite French artists. Tom decided to collaborate on these 11 new songs with various artists as a way of acknowledging his deep love of French music, and deepen his relationship with mainland Europe, following Britain’s disastrous decision to leave the EU.
Tom’s debut album went Gold in France in 2001, selling over 60,000 copies, and he has divided his time between Paris and Wiltshire since 2021. Says Tom: “I grew up being intrigued by classic French songs. Before streaming services made all music readily available, only the huge crossover pop songs made it across the channel, but while my friends were listening to Vanessa Paradis, I was listening to Serge Gainsbourg. It seemed exotic, adventurous, and to be from another planet, let alone a country only 21 miles away from my own.”
During Covid, McRae released a single with his Belgian friend, Wannes Cappelle, a reworking of one of Tom’s songs in English and West Vlaams, as well as an album of duets with a Welsh artist, Lowri Evans. Both projects sparking his interest in collaboration with other artists.
“It’s not been a great time to be British since 2016”, says McRae. “We’ve become politically, economically and culturally isolated since Brexit – and I want to show that I feel more of a European than simply just an English person.”
“But mostly this album, Étrange Hiver, is about beautiful songs, some in English, some in French. Sung as duets with friends (some established artists, as well as some new or undiscovered voices) and creating 11 little emotional moments in a crazy world. Some cinematic, some more intimate and personal, all of the songs addressing the important things in life: love, loss, political populism, impending climate collapse… written at a time when it feels as if the world may never escape from this long, strange winter.”
“Each tuneful melody (McRae is almost alone among the new-acoustic crowd in his ability to write a decent chorus) is like a bullet, fired home by cracked vocals that test the upper limit of his choirboy range” – The Guardian
“An excellent album, one that firmly re-establishes McRae among this country’s finest singer-songwriters” – For Folk’s Sake
