From the people that brought us Lau, Joan As Police Woman, Kris Drever, Eddi Reader et al, Adam Holmes and The Embers highly anticipated new album, ‘Brighter Still’, will be released by Gogar Records on Friday June 10th 2016, it includes the new single ‘People Come/People Go’.
A 25 year old Edinburgh-native, Adam has just finished a tour with John McCusker, where they were joined onstage in London by Blur’s Graham Coxon. Adam Holmes and The Embers will play headline shows around the UK from June to September as well as an appearance at the Edinburgh International Festival as part of Martin Green’s Flit show alongside members of Lau, Mogwai, Portishead and The Unthanks.
Adam’s musical education began in the infamous folk clubs of Edinburgh – Sandy Bell’s and The Royal Oak – taken along by his mother, a huge fan of UK folk music, he witnessed the legendary live sessions that took place. His father’s influence was equally strong, a love of classic American singer songwriters (notably Neil Young and Townes Van Zandt) which he passed onto to his son, now evident in the transatlantic quality to Adam’s music.
Adam Holmes and The Embers debut album, ‘Heirs and Graces’ was released to much acclaim in early 2014 and immediately achieved a Scottish Album of the Year nomination.
Produced by John Wood (John Martyn, Nick Drake, Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, Pink Floyd) it followed a stint working on building sites by day, playing in folk clubs at night before a string of award nominations from the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year competition to Best Newcomer at the BBC Radio 2 Folk
Awards and then Best Up and Coming Artist at The Scottish Traditional Music Awards, all recognising a rising star on the UK folk scene. Live sessions for BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Scotland soon followed.
Two years on, the new album, ‘Brighter Still’ is eagerly anticipated by folk fans and critics alike, but its combination of haunting melodies, honest lyrics and Adam’s captivating voice will undoubtedly resonate with a wider audience. The first single from the album is ‘People Come / People Go’, written on a train journey, its words of comfort for a fellow traveler make it a beguiling song of hope and encouragement.
Live, Adam Holmes and The Embers combine the rhythm and blues, country and folk music textures of classic artists such as The Band, Neil Young and Ryan Adams and The Cardinals – last year they played a sell-out show at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre as part of Celtic Connections and at the long-running Tønder Festival in Denmark where Adam closed the festival singing with John Prine.
