Description
Short Stories Vol. 2 is a solo album by the British singer and songwriter Ricky Ross of Deacon Blue fame, self-released August 2022 under exclusive licence to Cooking Vinyl Limited.
Only the second in the series of Short Stories but already a coveted extra slice of imaginative songwriting creativity from Ricky Ross.
Ricky is best known as front man and main songwriter in Deacon Blue. With the band his songs soar across stages in anthemic hopefulness, the likes of «Real Gone Kid», «Fergus Sings The Blues» and «Dignity» teasing crowds to sing their lungs out.
These Short Stories records have given Ross a whole other outlet. Here he sits at the piano and with any lack of clutter gives us surmises on home and work and faith in more of a downbeat way.
This second volume has a couple of interesting contributions. First, that it was recorded in lockdown. The shadowy covid years has these songs yearning for space and the outside, walking mountains and finding The Unpath. Ricky had his Spanish Shoes ready to go when restrictions lifted into a New World – maybe not up those mountains though!
Secondly, as he was conjuring these songs he was also writing his first memoir Walking Back Home. As a result we get stories of family and loss.
Still Walking has both. A camping trip with his son, turns into a special moment that ends with a daughter on a train heading away from home. I sensed his relationship with his father dropped in too – “Still feeling the hand of the Lord, resting on my shoulder”. I love the geographical details. Just like the memoir I am surmising my own family relationships.
As with Vol. 1 we get a few old Deacon Blue songs refreshed and revived. «I Am Born» originally on the rather half baked Homesick needed fully cooking. «Bethlehem’s Gate» and «Your Swaying Arms» maybe not so much. These are such quality songs and they sit beautifully here.
We have had a piano version of «Bethlehem’s Gate» before as a b-side but surprisingly this is the first such version of «Your Swaying Arms». I think I even have an Acapella vision of that. A beautiful song that incorporates all of Ross’s strengths – story, sense of place, romance and little lyrical depth charges – “the love we squandered”. I surmise that one a lot.
Short Stories Vol. 2 is a slow burn of an album crammed with the finest of songs. Every return brings a surprise of piano melody or poetic line. Bring on Vol. 3 and in my dreams Surprised By Joy and Thunder Road as performed side by side in The River Tent at Greenbelt in 1990! [Steve Stockman, Soul Surmise, 02/09/2022]
> iTunes (https://music.apple.com/us/album/short-stories-vol-2/1606890900)
CD tracklist:
01. The New World – 3:35
02. Still Walking – 5:37
03. All Dressed Up – 2:15
04. The Unpath – 3:43
05. Your Swaying Arms – 4:14
06. The Foundations – 4:46
07. The Unknown Warrior – 3:06
08. I Am Born – 3:43
09. I Was the Beatles – 3:42
10. Spanish Shoes – 5:37
11. Bethlehem’s Gate – 3:17
Note: Released on both CD and 12-inch vinyl LP by Cooking Vinyl Limited.
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[youtube_sc url=”gbfkccBsu3s” title=”Ricky Ross – Spanish Shoes (Official Video)” autohide=”1″ rel=”0″]
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