Track Listing

1. Death To All Things Real
2. I See A Darkness
3. The Lost Boat Song
4. Mary Margaret O 'Hara
5. Find The Way
6. Shelter From The Storm
7. Evening Of The Day
8. Tonight
9. The Last Remark
10. Mississippi

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81923 in Music
• Released on: 2006-03-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Album Description
The debut album by the Edinburgh based singer-songwriter, mixed and mastered by Calum Malcolm (The Blue Nile, Prefab Sprout). The record is a slow-burning intimate collection of piano-led, filmic, wide-screen songs, packed with emotional drive. Includes a remarkable cover of Bob Dylan's 'Shelter From The Storm' - a slow piano-vocal ballad that builds to a cacophony - and also a take on the mighty Bonnie Prince Billy song 'I See A Darkness'.

From the Artist
Online interview with mette casspe (gaffa on-line)...translated from Danish.

When is the album coming out? I need to mix it and get it mastered and then find someone to release it. The recording is finished.

Where did you record the album? I started in an old church in the Scottish Borders. I was at Blacksheep (recording studio) recording guitars, strings and harmonium. "Evening Of The Day" was recorded at Buccleuch church in Edinburgh.

Your record is very dark. Can you see yourself recording some upbeat music? I’m fairly happy making miserable music.

Who influences you? Anyone who really cares about what they doing in any walk of life.

On a musical level? I’m listening to a vocal trio from Bulgaria and the Mark Hollis solo record. Will Oldham - Master and Everyone (Bonnie Prince Billy album) does it for me.

Who would you most like to work with? Too many to list but I would love to work with the Bulgarian vocal trio.

Your version of Dylan's 'Shelter From The Storm' is very different from the original. I like the idea of taking a song and turning it upside down. I recorded a few Dylan songs for my own pleasure. I think I was bored working through the same songs and I wanted a break from my own stuff so I recorded a covers album. It was between that and ‘You’re A Big Girl Now’.

Do you like discussing lyrics? Not in public - for the most part, no.

Can I ask about the song 'Mississippi'? I’m really not sure if that song will make it on to the record. It was the last thing I recorded and it’s still very close. It was more like a demo- much of the record was like that.

You said 'Mississippi' may not make the album. How many songs do you have to choose from? Between twenty and thirty - fifteen or so completed. The most important thing is getting them to work together.

About the Artist
About the Artist Steve Adey... ...is a musician, singer songwriter and recording engineer born and raised in Birmingham, England. He has lived in New York City, New Jersey and is now based in Scotland's capital, Edinburgh. ...has prostituted his skills in various musical happenings, mainly from the back of a mixing console or the mastering of classical recordings, preferring until now to be behind the microphone or at the controls. ...has worked with various musicians from members of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra to recording heavy rock bands. ...was partly responsible for setting up the Black Sheep recording company located deep in the Scottish borders... Black Sheep hq - a large control room with vintage outboard gear and old instruments that would influence Steve's first recordings. During time out from recording others, much music was tried and tested and it was clear that this was the time to act. Steve's debut release 'All Things Real' was born in mid 2003 from these sessions. ! Friends, musicians (Doug MacDonald, Naomi Van Noordennen, Dave Biddulph, Simon McGlynn, Helena MacGilp and Maggie Cripps) contributed parts and in late 2005 the recording was mastered by Calum Malcolm.

Customer Reviews

Slow burning and chilled.
on first listen I didn't really like this CD, but most of my favourite albums are like that. it was after the fourth/ fifth time round that the songs started to seep in to my bloodstream. each passing note is carefully considered, but yet it sounds like it was recorded quickly with little fuss. the record works best when listened to from start to finish. I'm not sure how old this guy is, but adey has made a record in a traditional way that is best savoured with a glass of wine and the lights turned off. i really do find this a great - calming album to relax to. stand out tracks are find the way (similar to the first two and a half blue nile albums), shelter from the storm (i didn't even recognize the song), lost boat song (i really didn't like this song at first), the last remark (sounds like peter gabriel letting his hair-sorry peter-down), and the final song, .....mississippi is truly amazing (this is apparently the demo version).
this isn't every-ones bag, but if you like artists such as talk talk, early blue nile, kate bush - crossed with some home made lo-fi/americana - smog, bonnie prince billy, jose gonzalez, you will love this album.

beautiful moments of emptiness
A friend gave me this album(promo)six months ago and I love the feel and emotional impact these songs bring...
The solitude of this album is one of abandonment rather than liberation. It traffics in silences and painful proximity: the songs are so well written - very understated. The close recording create flaws and weaknesses in much of the musical texture; the very mechanics of instrumentation seem to serve where the instruments themselves falter: the sound of air running through the harmonium, the scratching on worn guitar strings, the emotion of Adey's vocals. And the silences that seems to threaten the life of every song are poised as failures: the instruments or the voice or even the prosody of the lyrics simply give way into slight moments of emptiness.

These are just my thoughts as I stand now. My love affair with this beautiful and vatic record is fresh, and like all youthful suitors I will tend to idolise and revere the object of my passion, to read too much into its gestures and motions, to ignore the world outside for a while; and yet I know that there are still many things to be found within the minutes of this record, in its antecedents and heirs, its sources and resonances. I am barely yet acquainted with All Thing Real. To steal for a moment; the rigorous succession of circumstances. This table, this bubble of light humming with music. This is where I start.

A quiet masterpiece.
I just got this CD two days ago and I cant stop playing it.
I'm a big Talk Talk fan and I got this on the back of reading a posite review.
The songs run seamlessly together as if years went in to the making of the album. There isn't a bad song here -just heartfelt emotion.
Layers of perfectly constructed instruments.
This is what the long awaited forth Blue Nile album should have sounded like!
The main strength here is the originality - there are obvious influences , but Adey sounds like no-one else in particular.
Its some time since a new CD sounded so vital, different.
Steve Adey has new fan.