What You Need Is To Be Free

Next Thursday is 29th February, Leap Year's Day, and Dan Wainwright marks the occasion with the release of a self-titled (or untitled, if you prefer) album.

 

I first featured Dan's music here very early on, not even 50 posts in and just getting into gear with daily uploads. Swiss Adam at Bagging Area had switched me onto Dan's music and I was immediately hooked. Broadly speaking, electronic music but with elements of dub, psychedelia, deep-down vocals and equally at home on a pair of headphones or booming from club-or-pub speakers.

 

In the past three years, I've regularly featured Dan's music in Dubhed selections and end of year round ups, not least the excellent Psychedelic Science, a deep, dubby collaboration with Rude Audio and a highlight of 2023.

 

Dan's new album is a different proposition altogether, eight songs of Dan singing, accompanied only by his ukelele. Is there a need for ukelele-playing singer songwriters in the 21st century? Abso-bloody-lutely.

I pre-ordered the album and Dan very kindly posted the CD to me in advance of the official release day, so I've had an opportunity to listen to the album a fair bit in the past couple of weeks.That in itself has proved to be a unique personal experience.

My usual go-to is a plug-in CD/DVD player and I generally listen to (and rip) CDs via the Clan K computer. It's a bit temperamental though and randomly refuses to play certain CDs, despite various attempts at cleaning, coaxing and cursing. Dan's album drew the short straw on this occasion.

My car doesn't have a CD facility so the only other option to hand was a CD & radio that we bought for Lady K when she was little, mainly to play audio books on CD, and which has been long-abandoned. It kind of works, but needs a bit of effort. It requires an absolutely stable surface otherwise the CD skips. The lid no longer stays closed, so you either need to place a weight on it or lift the carry handle to an upright position to (mostly) keep it shut, otherwise the CD stops playing. The back- and forward-skip functions are unreliable. The radio aerial snapped off many years ago.  The once pink-and-white body now looks more mouldy-peach-and-piss-yellow. But it did the job.

 

Logistically, this has also meant that I've inevitably played to the album either late at night or very early in the morning through headphones, which has provided an even more intensely intimate listening experience.

I've been on Dan's mailing list since 2021 so what, from a casual glance at his Bandcamp catalogue, may seem like an abrupt change of direction has been many years in the making. The last couple in particular focused on practicing and finding a voice with the ukelele, with regular YouTube uploads (unavailable now) of Dan's works-in-progress. Even so, the album shows how much further Dan has come in that time.

I can't confess to owning a vast amount of ukelele-led music, yet it feels absolutely right for the songs and album as a whole. These are deeply personal reflections and narratives that benefit from the musical setting. At times, the ukelele stylings reminded me of Spanish guitar generally and the stripped-back sounds of, say, Rodrigo y Gabriela.

Dan's 'practice' YouTube uploads also included covers of John Prine, Neil Young and Willie Nelson, which are also useful pointers to the sound and the feel of the album.

Is it folk? I guess so, the narratives appear to inspired and informed by Dan's lived experience and presented with accessible lyrics that you can imagine being sung around a campfire or in a pub, with others joining in as the occasion demands. The other 'folky' aspect that I really like is that Dan's singing voice retains his regional accent. It's something that I am personally drawn to when listening to music, but feels even more important given Dan's journey to this album and finding his own voice.

You don't need to know about Dan to enjoy the album, the songs welcome you in and enrich you in their own right. However, Dan's openness about his struggle with continuing down the 'easier' and more established path of electronic music, the impact on his health and well being, and the desire to give life to the lyrics and music that he'd been crafting in the background for the past decade or so lends the album a different, affecting quality. 

I was rooting for Dan to believe in himself and take the bold step of saying "this is me" with this album and he's done it. I really, really like this album.

1) I'll Come Running

I came across the Devil 

And he looked into my eyes

2) She Knew What She Knew 

Fresh air of the spring

And the sun is shining down 

 

3) Liberty 

Sadly I didn't bring my kite

So I cannot fly tonight

 

4) Plain To See 

You know I love you, you know I do

You said you don't need it

I said I don't need it too

 

5) Time Are Hard

When I woke up this morning

I didn't think you'd be here with me

  

6) Until There's Peace 

Why don't you talk to me my darling?

 

7) Big Boss Man 

Give me my money, Big Boss Man

I worked so hard

Just to earn my hand

 

8) Like A Bird

Don't be alone

Take what you need

And walk along until you're free

 

 

Three of the songs are available to preview on Bandcamp, though I would encourage you to pre-order ahead of next Thursday's official release as the other five songs are every bit as beautiful.