Andy Fairweather Low's FLANG DANG is a remarkable return to form, and is his first solo outing in seventeen years. The album was written, produced and performed by Andy, who plays all of the instruments here with the exception of the drums, deftly handled by Low Riders band member Paul Beavis. Recorded during lockdown in Wales’s storied Rockfield studios, the experience marked yet another kind of return for the artist, whom many years ago had been the first established performer to record there. He recalls:

“In 1965 I was there, and the staircase that Iput my foot on is still there. And I put my foot on it again. It was a bizarre feeling, but it was also the perfect thing. Two years of Covid, didn’t know what to do. And then Kingsley (Ward), suggested that I come down. And I thought, you know what? I think I’ll take Kingsley up on his offer. And I did.

‘You don’t have to pay, you know, you can have itfor nothing, just come down and do something, it will be good to see you’, Kingsley said. And it was like going home. It’s become like part of a family really, part of the Rockfield family. It did complete a circle. It was just meant to be.”

He hadn’t planned to make another album, but the lockdown had created the situation that he says left him thinking, “Why not?”

“I’d always been writing and scribbling away. I do my demos at home on a Boss 1180, and I LOVE my demos. They’re not sort of high-tech quality sound, but they’ve got a thing about ‘em. The only thing I can’t stand is the drum machine that I use, so this time, I thought, ‘I’ll tell you what, I’ll go to Rockfield, and I’ll do my demos but at a better level, better technical level, and with a proper drummer’. I asked Paul (Beavis), The Low Riders’ drummer if he’d come and sort of duplicate the drum patterns that I had, and he said yes, and off we went.

It took three weeks, just myself and Beavis in there, and making the album for me, nobody else. And Kingsley was just so generous, it was a fabulous moment.”

FLANG DANG oozes with the kind of blues, country, and gospel that Andy has made his own;  a style once described as a “prayer without pretension in every infectious song.”

“There are sort of a lot of soulful and gospel-tinged songs, mind you, there’s a bit of blues, there’s a bit of ska, there’s a bit of country, there’s a bit of everything. It’s everything I’ve ever listened to. My perspective on music since “Sweet Soulful Music” in 2007has not really changed. It’s always the same approach, it was my demos then, it’s my demos now. And I have days when I’m sort of spiritual and I have days when I’m not, It’s a constant conversation. So, I’m not tied down to anything.”

Andy's straightforward and often powerful lyrics greet the uncertainties and sorrows of life with a missive to get up and “Stand Up” in the light, and above all, to keep faith with oneself. The final track, “The End of All The Roads,” suggests we get going:

“This world is searching every sorrowful day for a truth that will save us all

Hard times and trouble come no more again they say for we shall overcome

But I say until that day go get gone and be on your way.”

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