Redeye Music

After spending an agonising two and a half years recording and refining his debut album the sweetest ache, Christopher Rees retreated to the mountains of mid Wales to record the antidote.

The aim was to escape from all distractions and isolate him self away in a tiny 2 room cottage in the country to make an album completely alone in just a week. And that he did recording, playing and mixing every note of every sound that you hear.

Packing the car with his mobile studio and as many guitars, and musical instruments as it would take he holed up at Ty Bach Twt (a 200 year old welsh cottage in the mountains above Aberystwyth).

With a list of over 40 songs he immediately set to work, picking tracks at random -whichever felt right at any particular moment (the order of the album is the exact order in which the songs were recorded). In doing so he captured a fresh vitality and raw edge that contrasts well with the dense orchestral polish of the sweetest ache.

reflecting his love for blues an country artists like Skip James, Son House, Townes Van Zandt, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley he magnated towards an ever expanding batch of songs that he had never performed with his band.

Some were already fully formed in his mind and some like wasted life and a heartbeat or two were written during his time at the cottage (the former on the first night he arrived). Renowned for his nocturnal habits he would work well into the early hours, treasuring the ability to play loud electric guitar or drums at 5am without any neighbours to complain.

Living on a diet of potatoes, tinned sardines and Jack Daniels it really was a back to basics ritual that allowed him the time and freedom to truly focus and rediscover why he began making music and writing songs in the first place - because he loves it.

With nothing to do but just get on with it, he was in his element, churning out two, three or four tracks a day, playing acoustic and electric guitars, banjo, resonator slide, bass, drums, percussion, harmonica and even kazoo as well as multi tracking his voice to create a mini male voice choir on lord find me a home (a song written the day after Johnny Cash died, for and from the imagined perspective of the great 'man in black' as he neared his death bed).

The album is however not full of doom and gloom but bursting with rays of sunlight.

Titles like hope springs, a heartbeat or two and the will to live exude a renewed sense of optimism that gives the record a healthy balance of light and shade. Others like 'Not A Word' deliver the immediate energy and appeal of Elvis jamming with the MC5. 'The Will To Live' nods in the direction of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, 'Hold Off Goodbye' recalls Bob Dylan's electric transition, 'Hold Me Down' knocks on Leonard Cohen's door and Haitian Cannonball (a song written in the Andy Kershaw suite of the legendary hotel Oloffson in Port Au Prince, Haiti - where Graham Greene famously wrote the Comedians and Iggy Pop made Zombie Birdhouse) stirs the primal spirit of son house.

But this is no homage to his heroes, just the sound of their collective influence flowing through him in his own distinctive manner. Alone on a mountain top is an album that does exactly what it says on the box.

Its Christopher Rees left to his own devices - alone in a cottage on the top of a mountain.

The result - 12 songs in 6 days and one great album. Who said that second albums have to be difficult?

Tracklisting
Hold Off Goodbye
Hope Springs
Wasted Life
Not A Word
Fair-weather Friend
Lord Find Me A Home
Worn Out Crutches
The Will To Live
A Heartbeat or Two
Haitian Cannonball
Hold Me Down
Hush Now Be Still