David Lewis

UK singer-songwriter David Lewis's 1996 debut, the acoustic-oriented "No Straight Line" (Dejadisc DJD 3215) gained a four-star rating in the All Music Guide and a handful of perceptive and positive reviews. It was followed by "For Now" (Appleseed APR 1057) in 2001, which continued NSL's restrained acoustic folk approach but added a more fleshed-out full-band backing on some songs. It included a cover of the late British songwriter Nick Drakes Northern Sky, creating "a tasteful and satisfying album" (Dirty Linen). In keeping with the slow but steady structure of the once ubiquitous five year plan, a third CD, entitled "Ghost Rhymes", is almost completed.Growing up in the West of England and addicted to 1970s folk-rock, David met fellow student Wes Stace (later to be known as US-based singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding) at university in the mid-1980s and the two forged a friendship busking blues and folk songs mostly discovered on old Dylan and Ry Cooder records.Later when Harding's career took off, they started collaborating on writing songs such as Red Rose and the Briar, Ordinary Weekend, and Cupid and Psycho which wound up on various Harding CDs. Each of Lewis CDs to date has also included three co-writes with Harding. With Harding and fellow musician Scott Mathews as co-producers, Lewis recorded NSL at Mathews San Francisco studio. Harding, Matthews, Robert Lloyd (a frequent Harding accompanist) and guests like REMs Peter Buck on mandolin created an acoustic-based recording that also featured "unexplained atmospherics... setting up some interesting spooky textures", according to Sing Out! Launched at SXSW, NSL unfortunately took a quick trip to the cut-out bins when the American record label, the Austin-based Dejadisc, went out of business the next year.Undeterred, Lewis and Harding began working on a follow-up - in between other commitments - which became For Now, enlisting such notable Harding friends and musical associates as co-producer/musician/solo artist Chris von Sneidern and Chuck Prophet (guitars; a writer/player/singer with his own career) along with multi-instrumentalist Lloyd. Seminal Lewis influence Al Stewart provided second vocal on You Don't Know. The release of "For Now" coincided with an extensive U.S. tour in late 2001 supporting John Wesley Harding, taking in venues across the country including McCabes LA, Schuber's Chicago and the Makor Lounge NYC.Lewis third CD, "Ghost Rhymes", was recorded in Seattle and San Francisco again with the tried and tested team of Harding, von Sneidern, Lloyd and also features Seattle legend Kurt Bloch. It contains 13 new songs (three co-written with Harding) and also includes Black Pig, recently and unexpectedly recovered from the folk process and found to have been originally written by Lewis great-grandfather John Owen, a sometime bard of South Wales during the late nineteenth century. "Ghost Rhymes" is currently being mastered and will be released in mid-2006. More details at www.davidlewismusic.co.uk.No Straight Line and For Now are both available through iTunes at http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum? playListId=89232650.Also available through CD Baby at http://cdbaby.com/cd/davidlewis3