If you’re a folk fan, the choices in the current crop of artists both in the US and the UK are almost overwhelming but there are still a few nuggets of quality that float to the top and demand to be listened to.
Hailing from the Isle of Mull and currently accompanying Idlewild on their UK tour, Scottish singer/songwriter Sorren Maclean is one of these nuggets, and his latest EP “Way Back Home” displays a remarkable maturity of penmanship and arrangement.
Opener and title track “Way Back Home” is Americana through and through, touching all the emotional bases as Sorren describes life on the road, capturing the journey and anticipation of a jobbing musician finishing a tour. It also has a Fleetwood Mac feel to it, and the song’s hooks stick around long after you’ve taken it off your stereo.
“Rows & Rows of Boxes” is a poignant and intimate vignette, with just Sorren and his guitar delivering gorgeous imagery that soothes the ear and makes the heart swell. Towards the end he’s joined by a pianist who provides a haunting outro.
We’d love to know who “If Not For You” is written for, as it’s a touching and heartfelt love song that refuses to descend into chocolate box schmaltz, while “Long Will You Know” is an atmospheric Tom Waits-esque beer-on-the-piano, last-in-the-bar swan song for the EP, gently delivering us back into a world that suddenly seems a lot brighter having been taken on a journey through Sorren’s music.
