Sweet Baboo
Friday 2nd October 2015
The Paul Dunton Orchestra
At Revelation
Doors 7:00 pm
Price £10 / £12
Sweet Baboo is Stephen Black, a native of the north Wales countryside and a single-minded, idiosyncratic singer. Black possesses an ear for a sparkling melody, a restless soul, and a gift for a deft lyrical turn – from darkly funny to piercingly tender, twinklingly boastful to deliciously self-deprecating. His new album The Boombox Ballads is released on Moshi Moshi records.
Having already been shortlisted for the Welsh Music Prize in 2011 for his third album ‘I’m A Dancer/Songs About Sleeping’, Black’s evolution as a songwriter and musician is still very much in motion with his fourth album ‘Ships’, a concept album about the sea – and a marked step up from his earlier material that reveals his true talent is only beginning to be revealed. He returns with his fifth album ‘The Boombox Ballads’, a collection of songs influenced by the likes of Harry Nilsson and Dennis Wilson. Rich with string-laden arrangements, with lyrics culled from personal experience and resonating with domesticity but imagination and wit too, The Boombox Ballads is Sweet Baboo’s sophisticated pop album: celebratory, a little melancholic, free of cynicism.
With The Boombox Ballads, Sweet Baboo wanted to explore more what it was to be a singer as opposed to a ‘singer / songwriter’, a term that to him at least seems to have picked up negative connotations. Black worked with an arranger, Paul Jones, for the first time, with Jones helping him paint the most vivid accompaniments possible. This process leaves Sweet Baboo with nothing but his voice to guide him to the emotional centre of the song.
Black’s productivity is all the more remarkable given his extra-curricular activities which have seen him working with an ever-growing array of musicians including Cate Le Bon, Slow Club and H. Hawkline. He has also performed with and produced Euros Childs, The Pictish Trail, The Voluntary Butler Scheme and Islet and collaborated with Gruff Rhys.
“a terrific step up for a man who’s paid his dues for too long.” – Music OMH
“It’s a record to raise a smile and shed a tear to. A record to keep you company and let you know eveything’s (hopefully) going to be ok.” – DIY
Support comes from:
The Paul Dunton Orchestra
Singer-songwriter, Paul Dunton leads his own unique cross-over orchestra providing an atmospheric fusion of alternative/pop with a classical twist.