All roads lead to Manchester. Northern Britain’s cultural powerhouse spits out a great band every ten years or so. Get ready for guitarist and singer songwriter, Ashley Sherlock’s highly anticipated debut album “Just A Name.” The album will be released by Ruf Records on Friday 16 June.
The album is available to pre-order from https://orcd.co/jr5yo10.
“Realise,” the first single from the album, will be released on Wednesday 12 April, and is available to stream and download from https://orcd.co/4zx1zqq.
On the move, on the make, armed with a beat-up Stelfox electric guitar, a hot knife of a voice and a pocketful of hooks, the acclaimed Mancunian singer-songwriter, and his telepathic blues-rock power trio, have already packed-out iconic venues and pricked up influential ears.
“The band started about four years ago,” reflects Ashley. “That’s when I found the dynamic rhythm section of Charlie Rachael Kay on bass and Danny Rigg on drums.”
Continues Ashley, “I’d just come home from a trip to Nashville and was booked to play an event. I was persuaded by the promoter to get a band together for that one show – and they just stuck around! Now, we’re one hundred per cent a family. I love those guys to bits.”
Ashley is no stranger to the UK live circuit. In the past 12 months’ he’s supported the likes of Kris Barras Band, The Quireboys and Laurence Jones.
Ashley has released two acclaimed EPs with 2019’s self-titled “Ashley Sherlock,” followed by 2021’s “If You’re Listening.” In 2022, he was nominated for UK Blues Federation’s Young Blues Artist of the Year. He’s even had airplay on the New Rock Show on Planet Rock, and beyond.
Louder Than War praised Sherlock by saying, “Ashley’s music will put a big stupid grin on your face,” while Get Ready to Rock professed, “his music will leave you wanting more.”
Now signed to Ruf Records, Ashley’s debut album “Just A Name,” hopes that you won’t forget his. “The writing and sense of melody has grown on this record and it’s an honest representation of our live sound,” says Ashley.
The enterprising guitarist will showcase twelve classic songs from the new album on Ruf Records’ forthcoming Blues Caravan Tour 2023, plus his own shows throughout the rest of the year. Tickets are available from www.ashleysherlock.com/tour.
“A lot of these songs are about love gained and lost, personal growth, observations of times in my life,” says Ashley.
Plush studios aren’t their style. Instead, Ashely and his bandmates beat a path to Manchester’s Hallam Mill to record the new album in the dead of winter where they rubbed sparks off each other. “The whole recording process was a real learning experience,” says Ashley.
“We spent four solid days in December in the attic of this old English cotton mill, recording this album mostly live for ten hours a day. It was freezing and we’d huddle around a small heater for warmth between takes. We had a real blast, though, and it brought us all closer, while helping us gain a mutual understanding of the song’s context and how to deliver it best to the listener.”
Blues might be a centuries-old genre, but it doesn’t have to run on autopilot. As you’d hope from a modern songwriter whose influences include Guns N’ Roses, The Cadillac Three, Dire Straits, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jeff Buckley, the songs on “Just A Name” twist and turn with a salute to soul, pop, hard rock and more.
Never taking the easy option of a twelve-bar trudge, every song on the new album makes its own distinct mark. It’s hard to choose your favourite.
Ashley Sherlock – remember that name when “Just A Name” is released on June 16th. Today, Manchester, tomorrow the world.
