Gemma Ray - The Leader
VÖ: 31.10.2008
Label/Vertrieb: Bronzerat/Soulfood
Presse/Onlinepromotion
"Disarming...swooning...with noir-ish hints of Lee Hazelwood’s unearthly country-rock... Ray sits midway between Nina Simone and Isobel Campbell and is the better for it.” – MOJO
“A wonderful debut album... Gemma weaves an entrancing tapestry of soul, blues and pop, full of dark themes and late-night confessions, all presented in a sultry, seductive voice. With Duffy, Adele and Beth Rowley joining Amy Winehouse in the upper reaches of the charts, it’s clear girl singers are all the rage. But few, with the exception of Amy, are as raw and honest.” – THE SUN
“A brilliantly brooding prospect. Like a grittier Loretta Lynn, she’s from the wrong side of the tracks. Uncouthly ace.” - NME
“Imagine Norah Jones on Amy Winehouse’s drugs.” – Q
“Gemma Ray’s music defies easy categorisation...she has a clutch-purse full of sundry party tricks. You could do worse than imagine PJ Harvey in thrall to The Shangri-Las. Both Dry River and Hard Shoulder rise from minor key squalls to full girl-group majesty, while Rise Of The Runts shows she has no problem producing straight, sparkling pop.” – THE WORD
“A persuasive exercise in Hitchcockian melodrama” – UNCUT
Essex born-and-bred beauty Gemma Ray is a singer-songwriter with a difference: her songs beguile you in the same way classic melodies do, yet somehow defy comparison. The heart-on-sleeve craftswomanship of her tunes give full vent to roller-coasting emotional intensity and twisted humour as she wraps her sultry vocals around little gems of pop, soul, blues and gospel beauty. Gemma Ray's latest release, entitled The Leader, finds her fervently expressive music co-produced to a brilliant sheen by Michael J Sheehy. Released on October 31st on Bronzerat Records and distribution by Soulfood Music in Germany.
The road leading up to this album was an unusually dark and twisted one, with Gemma in and out of the hospital battling a mystery illness for nearly two years. In the course of her Tramadol-induced bliss, enforced solitude, and hallucinations, she composed over fifty songs. Dubbed The Sick Sessions, no stone was left unturned during this troubled but prolific interlude of feverish composition. Recording sessions in the final two months of 2007, saw the recovered and reinvigorated Gemma Ray distilling the finest fruits of her latest burst of songwriting into The Leader, an incandescently seductive 13 song album. It is released on Bronzerat Records, the label that brought you Seasick Steve.
Gemma Ray also recently provided the soundtrack to forthcoming BBC horror movie/psycho-drama Mum & Dad, starring Perry Benson, out in Autumn.
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