Neville Skelly has announced details of his debut album, Poet & The Dreamer, which is released through Setanta / Pias on Monday May 30th 2011.
The 12-track LP features covers of tracks by the likes of Jackson C. Frank, Woody Guthrie and Dion alongside Skelly’s own compositions.
The album was recorded at Ape Studios on the Wirral using an armoury of vintage equipment in a quick-sharp 10 days with Ian Skelly of The Coral (no direct relation) at the helm on production duties and the rest of The Coral contributing variously throughout the record.
Skelly had first made contact with the band via a shared love of Cole Porter and George Gershwin – Neville had done a ‘big band’ record which the Coral had admired. The Coral would go on to provide the encouragement and support Neville needed to record the songs he had written.
A true labour of love, initially inspired by a marriage break-up, work on Poet & The Dreamer first started back in 2008 and came to eventual fruition due to Neville’s persistence and the belief and favour of various artists, music industry sorts and producers who all saw the timeless appeal of the record.
The album is the crystalisation of over two decades of writing and therefore, as you might expect, is varied, rich and melancholic – lap steel guitars next to gently strummed acoustic guitars, capture a languid world-weary beauty. And above all of this, characterising these beautiful songs, sits Skelly’s winter-dream of a voice.
Having relased 2 well-received EPs last year, Neville also toured alongside The Coral – he played at London’s Royal Albert Hall on the tour.