by Glen Screeton
FURTHER to my articles about the popular Warrington band ‘ The Ambersons’ the hugely anticipated album ‘Winter Songs’ is finally released today, February 7.
Ok, it’s a little bit later than expected and they sadly missed the 2024 Christmas rush, but after a bit more mastering I can confidently report that it was well worth the wait. We have to remember this album is a ‘home grown’ production from an excellent sell out show at the Pyramid Warrington in December 2023 with the recording carried out by Mike Grainger and the subsequent mix and mastering being done by band member Ben Ashton. As they are currently an unsigned band there was no big budget available from a record label and having had a sneak preview on my Podcast ( see further below ) I think they have done a fantastic job!
Senior readers (myself included) might remember the old days of bands releasing a risky live album as an afterthought , when they clearly didn’t have enough material to make another album worthy of a further tour but something had to keep the money rolling in. In fact, I recall some pretty ropey ones that left you scrabbling for the studio album again! ,
However, that’s definitely not the case with ‘Winter Songs’ as the lead vocals from Midge are very clear and the band ,with accompanying string quartet and brass section can easily be heard. In fact, if you were in the crowd that December night you might well hear yourself whooping and hollering at the close of each number but it’s certainly not overbearing as the atmosphere of the evening has been captured nicely.
All the favourite singalong Amberson numbers are included on the album and if the reader is not familiar with their songs just think of a blend between The Beatles album ‘Sgt Pepper’ and the Travis album ‘ The Man Who’ and you won’t be far wrong – big sound, lovely harmonies and clever dynamics.
Readers may be familiar with my new music podcast on Spotify called Unsignedhub.com and if you want to hear 2 Amberson tracks from previous EP releases and 3 tracks off the new album then tune into Episode 6 from Sunday 9th Feb where you will hear me chatting to Bass player Andy Fairnington and lead vocalist Midge Fairnington . This is the link to the Podcast menu and don’t forget to clock the Follow button!
https://open.spotify.com/show/221vuv3U3NSIVRkrePIFSJ
When you are ready to dive in then you can download the ‘Winter Songs’ album on Bandcamp at https://theambersons.bandcamp.com/
OR on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/artist/75DV2rhMrB2HwNFQCpizWf
Let’s keep our fingers crossed for a possible vinyl release later in the year with this fantastic album sleeve for your collection.
