Terry Emm is a young singer songwriter from a small village in Bedfordshire, England.
Review taken from Maverick Magazine issue 79 February 2009:-
Terry Emm
White Butterflies
LongMan Records 051CD
***** 5/5
Excellent debut release from a young singer songwriter from the school of Nick Drake and Al Stewart.
This fine release came as a complete surprise upon listening to it, I mistakenly thought that WHITE BUTTERFLIES was going to be yet another bland singer songwriter release with not a lot going for it and nothing to make it stand out. How wrong I was, Terry Emm has a velvet smooth vocal and certainly knows how to compose a good song. At only nineteen years old Terry could herald the start of a new breed of songwriter from the melodic school of Drake, Stewart, Williamson and Heron. Not for Terry to be an angry young man, angst ridden and jaded by society in his writing, Terry is an old romantic or rather young romantic as his songs are nearly all on the theme of love, longing and loss. Many of the ten original songs have lush orchestral backing and this is what makes this album stand out, just the correct musical backdrop for Terry’s choice of subject matter.
The opening track 'Summer' is just perfect in displaying all the great elements on the album, poetic lyrics, soothing acoustic guitar and superb string quartet arrangement. Second cut 'Sapphire Eyes' is equally good, this track the perfect vehicle to display the vocal mastery of Terry Emm, if you were looking to find a track to help woo a loved one then this would be perfect, I really can’t believe how good a vocalist and songwriter he is, at this rate 2009 will be a very busy year indeed for him. I keep trying to find something to find fault with but it’s impossible, third track 'Dove' is superb, worthy of radio play anywhere. Looking into more detail on Terry’s website I see that Eliza Carthy has championed him and in 2007 Johnny Coppin awarded Terry the prestigious ‘Folk Quest’ award for song writing and musicianship and you can plainly see why.
Acclaimed classical guitarist Richard Durrant who supplies distant electric guitar breaks, though only where needed, in the background creating just the correct atmosphere, produced the album and he has done a fine job, faultless. Title track White Butterflies has an almost Mediterranean feel with a fleet of mandolins along with strings the only accompaniment to Terry, his voice and his guitar, stunning. To be quite frank there isn’t a bad track to be heard on the whole release, Willow Tree, The Way You Look, New Horizons and final cut Blossom are all equally good. This album will be released in February 2009 so I would get in the queue now as this is the best debut album from a singer songwriter that I have heard in a long time and have no hesitation in awarding it the full five stars.'
JHS
