“‘Same Damn Thing’ has a hint of Motown about it,” said Albany Down’s guitarist and vocalist Paul Turley. “The premise of the song is about feeling of being stuck in a rut, unable to escape your worries.” 

You can stream/purchase the single by clicking here and check out the video for it right here at RAMzine.

Featuring drummer and backing vocalist Pete Hancock, and bassist and backing vocalist Ben Atkins, alongside Turley, the band initially pulled together classic rock and British blues rock influences, but by their 2011 debut album, South Of The City, they found their own sound, and have since recorded four studio albums with producer Greg Haver (Manic Street Preachers, INME, Super Furry Animals).

In 2013 the band stepped up to the plate with 12 original well-crafted songs on their formidable second album Not Over Yet, including the 2013 ISC award winning Best Blues Song – ‘You Ain’t Coming Home’. With the release of their third album The Outer Reach in 2016, Albany Down won many new fans touring in the UK and The Netherlands. They were voted winners of the 2016 UK Song Writing Competition for Best Rock Song for ‘Feeding the Flame’, Best Music Video, and voted #5 Best Album of 2016 by Blues Rock Review. 

In 2020 they released Born In The Ashes, that like previous albums has a strong “overcoming adversity” theme, inspired by those darkest days during the 2020/22 global pandemic followed by war in Ukraine, political, civil, and economic unrest. The new album was recorded at Rockfield Studios with Haver bringing together the same recording and production team as he used on all previous Albany Down albums.

“We all came to the band with different but related musical influences,” said Turley. “I wanted to build on those and write and play music that was all our own and contemporary. We enjoyed working with Greg and his team and he has undoubtedly enabled us to expand both our musical horizons and our self confidence in trying out new things.”

Tracks featured on Born In  The Ashes are: ‘Always Want What You Can’t Have’, ‘Good News’, ‘Same Damn Thing’, ‘The Memory Of What Used To Be’, ‘Reflections’, ‘Born In The Ashes’, ‘Darkest Day’, ‘Kingdom of the Blind’, ‘Don’t Look Back’, ‘I’ll Come Running’, ‘Your Days Are Numbered’, ‘This Heavy Soul’ and ‘Let Your Love Shine’.

Available on CD, digitally and on vinyl it can be ordered here.

“’You Always Want What You Can’t Have’ is one of the first songs I wrote for the new album,” said Turley regarding their previous single release. “It was also the first song we recorded at Rockfield. The lyrics of the songs are both potent and relevant to those who are never satisfied with what they have in life.”

The band have also made a music video for that one. Recorded at The Musician in Leicester, and you can also check it out here at RAMzine and stream the single here. 

ALBANY DOWN 2023 UK ALBUM LAUNCH TOUR

SATURDAY 12^th AUGUST: THE KINGS ARMS, 24 St. Mary’s Street, Bedford, MK42 OAS.
FRIDAY 1^st SEPTEMBER: THE GREYSTONES, Greystones Road, Sheffield, S11 7BS.
SATURDAY 7^th OCTOBER: QUAINTWAYS LIVE, 12-16 Northgate Street, Chester, CH1 2SA.
MONDAY 16^th OCTOBER: THE TEMPERANCE, 33 Bath Street, Leamington Spa, CV31 3AF.
FRIDAY 20^th OCTOBER: THE GRIFFIN EARLESTOWN, Earle Street, Newton-Le-Willows, WA12 9LR.
SATURDAY 21^st OCTOBER: MORECAMBE PLATFORM, Marine Road, Morecambe, LA4 4DB
(Supporting Chantel McGregor).

Tickets available here.

The post Same Damn Thing with Albany Down appeared first on RAMzine.

ALBANY DOWN are Paul Muir on vocals, Paul Turley on guitar, Donna Peters on drums and Billy Dedman on bass. The Lodnon-based rockers have already recorded two superb albums with award-winning producer Greg Havers [Manic Street Preachers] and are  best-known for their stunning live performances on UK blues-tours as well as their excellent songwriting ability,  and impressive musicianship.

The band launched their London set with the glorious ‘Feeding the Flame’. This had baroque influences and some moving passion from Muir on vocals, whilst Turley’s hurdy-gurdy guitar twisted and turned like a python on a hot skillet. The rhythms were consistently great, with robust low notes and clear, unequivocal drummery. This was a bewitching main-spring number and became the driving force for the rest of the show.

In the second and third numbers, though, the band lost much of this initial impulse and thrust, the respectful vintage sounding ‘I Need You’ lacked inner strength and vitality. Punters started to drift off to the bar.

Luckily ‘Like a Bullet’ was a sensation. This type of progressively-building song bringd home the bacon for Albany Down. It reminded us of Nickelback  — I hasten to add, in terms of musicality and polish only, I would hate you to think that Albany Down are as unimaginative as their Canadian cousins  — the number has a heroic burst of guitar, a beautiful melody and the type of upheaval twinned with sense of betrayal that sends a shiver down your spine.

In the hazy summer-time blues number ‘South of the City’ from the AD album of the same name, we got (more than) a vague idea that the protagonist in the song had ‘done away’ with his true love (she was seeing another man, since you ask)  and consequently he had to leave town in a hurry, a fugitive on the run.

Now justice is to be served… And a song on the new album describes how the notorious killer has an early morning appointment with ‘Mr Hangman‘. Yes, it’s part two of this torrid little melodrama. Like it’s counterpart, on the earlier album, this has a hot and scuzzy riff that haunts like a mosquito bite on a wet day.  The chorus “I won’t go… till the hangman goes…”  is a heroic refrain. And it was articulated particularly powerfully by Muir in his impeccablly feverish, blue-eyed soul voice. But in fact this song belonged to Turley whose muddy blues-twisted guitar wreathed like a twitching noose-rope, before  dramatically dropping like a smoking trapdoor.

The sound of ALBANY DOWN is typically heavier than the traditional electric blues. Their output would sit neatly within the album-oriented rock radio  classification. At the 100 Club we were frequently reminded of “Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow ” as a comparison, albeit without keyboards, but with the same guitar-centric foundation, Graham Bonnet type vocalizations and blues-based compositions that  seemed to turn each little ditty,  ambitiously, into mini-epics of cinematic proportions.

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