Red Tree Officially Released

Well it's all official now- the new album is released as of today!
To order your copies online please visit the websites below,
All the best
Rachel
www.racheltaylor-beales.com
www.hushland.com
www.piperecords.co.uk

Reviews-
Postitive feedback and reviews have been coming in for the album over these last weeks and we've included a couple of quotes below...

'Individual and compelling songwriting talent, with a striking singing voice to match'
David Kidman Folk in The Round Magazine

'Wonderful overall feel and incredible range of emotion. The musicianship is amazing!'
David Kushar- www.spiralearth.co.uk

Rachel Taylor-Beales has a talent for story telling, with an eye and ear for the ‘real’ world around her. The mix of Folk, Jazz, Country and Americana blends to create a sublime sound that stops you in your tracks. With a New album and a tour on the horizon it’s about time you got on the band wagon.starting here! www.slow2fade.co.uk

We really liked Brilliant Blue, but Red Tree seems a huge step forward, we are seriously impressed !! www.fourdogsmusic.co.uk

No "difficult second album" worries for Rachel Taylor-Beales. 'Brilliant Blue', the Cardiff-based singer/songwriter's 2007 debut, was a lovely piece of work, but 'Red Tree' -- the second in a planned colour trilogy -- is a more than worthy successor.
Sarah Mcquaid- Irish Evening Herald


The launch gig at The Point was sooooo much fun. I was thrilled at the turnout and vibe. Huge thanks to all who came along to be part of the night. We managed to record the evening so there will be a 'Live Album' in the not too distant future!
I will be posting up photos soon and loading some video footage of the event onto the various websites soon, so watch this space...

All About Red Tree, The New Album

RED TREE
Release Date 21/05/08 on Hushland
CD Launch gig at THE POINT, Cardiff Bay on the 14th May


About the album
Red Tree is the second of a colour themed trilogy of albums.
The title track was in part inspired by ‘The Red Tree,’ story book written and illustrated the Australian author Shaun Tan. I had been on holiday in the beautiful countryside of West Wales, and remember photographing a whole series of brightly coloured red trees that were planted outside my window. I knew that the colour inspiration for the next album would be red- and so was on the look out for anything that would spark my imagination. Just after this time I came across Shaun’s book and was totally struck by the depth and imaginative illustrations that followed a young girl’s journey of hope through depression and confusion waiting for her dream of ‘The Red Tree’ to become a reality. This in turn became the starting point for my Red Tree song and from that the album.

This CD also includes 2 tracks, ‘What if I Said’ and ‘Kindly Leave’ that were composed in collaboration with poet and BBC radio 4’s Broadcaster, Stewart Henderson as well as one track ‘ Find Me’ written by Bill Taylor-Beales. As a singer I enjoy interpreting the words of others and felt that as my previous album Brilliant Blue was entirely written by me, there was definitely room to explore other voices alongside my own on this album.

Working with Martyn Joseph as a producer was a great experience. He was very keen that the recordings be ‘live takes’ so that we could capture as much intimacy of interpretation as we could in the performance of them. So we began a process of singing through the tracks as a whole and recording each take until we felt we had ‘the one’ This was a very different experience of recording for me as I’ve always worked layer by layer in the studio adding the vocals at the end. The result though is I feel a very authentic and personal sound, and the process has certainly helped me to really inhabit the songs as a performer.

Martyn also lent his excellent musicianship to the project. He would often start a session by saying that he’d been experimenting with different sounds and ideas on the tracks- and pretty much each time I’d end up saying- ‘Yes that has to stay on it!’
There are also appearances from the wonderful Karen Chalk who has sung and performed with me since 2004, as well as Bill Taylor-Beales, guesting on his own track- Find Me. Charlotte Eksteen’s cello parts were the last to be recorded and in my opinion her contributions have taken the album to another level. Her playing and interpretation of the tracks was stunning, and I remember at one point in the studio Martyn Joseph and myself both simultaneously saying Wow- after her moving rendition on the Moses Basket track.

CD Launch Gig 14th May

Have just had to re-schedule the Red Tree CD Launch gig date to May 14th at 'The Point' Cardiff Bay (the venue double booked) But it is set to stay!!

New CD coming soon...

The new CD Red Tree is now set for release on May 1st and a Launch Gig will be held on Wednesday May the 7th at The Point here in Cardiff, with more dates to follow. I'm planning lots of live art to accompany the gig and will post more info as and when...

In the mean time I am very excited about this new product and will be posting some taster samples on my website and Myspace pages in the weeks running up to the release.

The album has been produced by Martyn Joseph and also features him as a multi- instrumentalist along with the beautiful haunting sounds of Charlotte Eksteen's cello, some fine backing from the ever faithful Karen Chalk and Bill Taylor-Beales also makes a special appearance on one of the tracks... Watch this space...

Recording...

I have nearly finished recording tracks for the new album- Next Tuesday will be the last session and the very talented Charlotte Eksteen will be traveling down from London to add her cello parts to the mix. It's both exciting and daunting to be at this stage- Martyn has done a fine job as producer and has also added various instrumental offerings... So on to the mixing job over December and hopefully a shiny new album will be ready for release early next year!

I really enjoyed the various gigs and folk that I met last month- Particularly the Bournemouth crowd, and also the Chattery in Swansea- opening for the fabulous Kirsty Mcgee and Matt Martin- do check them out if you get a chance they're great! I Haven't booked any more gigs this year- as I'll be joining Bill for a Primary schools tour- with art and music workshops over December... But am planning lots more shows with the launch of the album next year... watch this space I guess...

And Finally-
My song Super Glue, is being released on a compilation album made by Dave and Debbie Bainbridge called Songs For Luka 2 to raise funds to enable their son to continue with the Sonrise- programme centre for autism.
here's the blub below-
At 2hrs 20mins long and containing 25 exclusive tracks (out of 30 in total) it has definitely been worth the wait and is tremendous value for money!

You will find contributions from a myriad of talented artists including: Moya Brennan, Joanne Hogg, IONA, Phil Keaggy, Troy Donockley,
Mostly Autumn, Martyn Joseph and many many more, along with some intriguing collaborations. Where else will you hear Heather Findlay from Mostly Autumn, Roine Stolt from the Flower Kings and Nick Beggs from Kajagoogoo all guesting on a newly recorded version of Iona's song 'Journey into the Morn', or Dave Bainbridge and Phil Keaggy playing together?
All proceeds go towards helping Dave & Debbie's autistic son, Luca continue on his Son-Rise Programme (Autism Center of America). Luca has been doing his Son-Rise programme at home for 5 years now and has made amazing progress; the proceeds of this album will enable Dave & Debbie to continue working with Luca in this way and pay for the essential support services that Son-Rise offer.

CD's will be available to order from the Iona Website http://www.iona.uk.com/

Greenbelt Festival 07

We had a great time at this years festival- though I personally didn’t get to see much apart from Billy Bragg (after my performance café gig) and Duke Special at the end of the festival Monday night (and of course some obligatory trips to the organic beer tent!) We were just really busy! As well as my gig (which was a very fun set to a packed out audience- thanks to all those who came along!) Bill and I were involved at the festival with the Scratch The Sky Project. This included a performance as Sir Silence and the Hush, several kite making workshops over the weekend(a dance workshop done by the 2 dancers from the show), a big kite installation art piece and a mass kite fly on the Monday afternoon. We had a fantastic team helping throughout the weekend and the beautiful weather all made for an exhausting but fun weekend… here are some pictures of the team and kite workshops, see my website for gig pictures…

Scratch the Sky CD Launch

28th July at The Gate Arts Centre, Cardiff

We were really pleased with this event, which was part 2 of Bill’s multi tiered Scratch the Sky art project. Alongside the CD launch Bill ran a 6 week exhibition of the different Scratch the Sky Art work he’s generated over the last year. This included a community exhibition created by local shopkeepers here in Cardiff where they illustrated their hopes and dreams and personal stories on kites, as well as the Palestine Kites and photographs we’d brought back with us (again illustrated with the stories of the young people we worked with out there) and also his own paintings and photography inspired by the theme.

For the CD launch performance, we turned the theatre space into a beach (by the use of 32 bags of sand!) and projected visuals onto a big screen made of kites. Karen Chalk (my ever faithful backing singer!) and I became ‘The Hush’ accompanying Bill as Sir Silence and our two dancers moved through the beach installation, interpreting the themes from the songs. All of this was set to a droned soundtrack of the sea playing as people entered the theatre space and throughout the show. Personally it was really fun to be part of the band and get to play banjo and sax again- as well as performing with our feet in the sand!