Pete McClelland


ALBUMS







Full Reviews & Info
The Way Back To You 2019( HOBCD1019)
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"I wrote this set of songs between 2017 and 2019. I've dedicated it to the my very good friend Cody D Grundy who sadly died before hearing the album. He did at least hear one of the songs I wrote for him "Song For Cody". Capritaurus was also for Cody. It's a second collection of my memories plus real and imagined scenes and situations from many years driving all around and across the USA with my wife Mannie. Images of all the people I met, friends I made, the places I've been, and the music I have listened to and played." The album was begun at Beach Studios Shoreham by Sea in 2017 and finished in Music Row Nashville in early 2020. The Way Back To You was released in May 2020 and features me on acoustic guitar and vocals, John Rain: bass, Tom Phelan: rhodes, Jason Pegg: mini-grand, Angele Veltmeier: sax. Chris Leuzinger: guitars, Denis Holt: drums, Pat Severs: guitars, dobro and steel.The project is being rehearsed currently with a view to accepting bookings in 2021.

Available to book now for share of door money! (south of London, or for a fee further afield.)

The Turn of the Tide 2017( HOBCD1017)
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Recorded in the spring of 2017 at Beach Studios, Shoreham by Sea, Sussex UK, The album was released in November 2017. The idea for The Turn of the Tide came out of a concert performance which the organisers of Cornwall Folk Festival were kind enough to offer me at the 2016 event. I put together a set of songs in varying styles about rivers, the sea and the coast. It all went down a lot better than I expected, so I decided to record it and see how it came out... well here it is and I hope you like it. There are three of my songs here and one each by Lennie Gallant, Stan Rogers and Archie Fisher as well as six traditional songs I have sung over the years and which I learned from some of my favourite folk singers.

Available to book now for share of door money! (south of London, or for a fee further afield.)

See the end of the set and the audience reaction on facebook here

Reviews in brief: LIVE "French guitarist Claude Bourbon, Pete McClelland along with Martin Simpson opened the Festival to make it a feast for all those “guitar pickers “out there. Pete gave up his Hobgoblin Music Chain management duties to return to his heart-felt roots and love of playing once again by delivering an inspired and very worthy, traditional performance – welcome back to the stage Pete! Your set was very good and I hope to see you do more performing now."
Mike Walford - Artistic Director Cornwall Folk Festival CIC

"I thought your set was really good and a couple who were staying at our B&B also commented on how much they enjoyed your material."
Clive Rooke, sound engineer Cornwall folk festival.

"A lot better than I expected!" "I wanted to add belated thanks for making last Monday such a success. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we all did. Best regards,"
Stuart Reed, Brighton Acoustic Session. 5th June 2017

ALBUM REVIEWS

"You could do much worse than listen to the gently engossing ‘The Turn Of The Tide’ by Peter Fergus McClelland. ..the result, engaged through McClelland’s eminently listenable voice and the absorbing narratives is a rather fine piece of work. The Turn Of The Tide’ is a simple album with an elemental attraction.
Charlie Elland - FolkWords

"The Turn of the Tide is a beautifully scenic album, one that like a dominating river is impossible to pull away from. Mr. McClelland sense of wonder pervades through the album like with the knowing approach of the seasoned fisherman pulling in his vessel out of the storm that is on the horizon"
Rating * * * * Ian D Hall - Liverpool Sound and Vision.

"Many thanks for the CD which I thoroughly enjoyed, a very good mix of contemporary and traditional." Pete McClelland - A Sussex based singer and guitarist with a superb selection of songs of the Sea, Coast, Fishing, Rivers, Lovers and Banishment. An eclectic mix of contemporary, including self-penned, and traditional songs."
Roger Resch - Tonbridge Folk Club

"The Turn of the Tide is Pete McClelland’s second album within a few months .. Pete is joined on vocals by Dogan Mehmet with fiddle accompaniment from Nick Pynn for The Herring’s Head.. a lively cumulative children’s song from the West Country, each verse adding to the chorus list. Also featuring fiddle, the section closes with the equally sprightly Candlelight Fisherman.. The last in this section is a rework of The Appalachian Way, one of the Carolina Sky stand-outs, with a different mix... The final two numbers form the Coast element, first up being the jaunty fiddle-driven folk-pop Top Alex, a self-penned number in memory of the Southend pier pavilion that burned down in 2005 the day after he tried to take his family to see it. You may have already got a copy of his last album, but you should put the boat out and shore up the collection with this too."
Mike Davies FRUK


Full Reviews & Info Carolina Sky 2017 (HOBCD1016)
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The album was begun at Beach Studios Shoreham by Sea in spring 2016 and finished in Nashville in July the same year. "This set of songs written between 2008 and 2016 are a collection of my thoughts and memories from many years driving all around and across the USA, of all the people I met, the places I've been, and the music I have listened to and played."


Ian D. Hall, Liverpool Sound and Vision - Rating * * * *
"Pete McClelland’s musical touch is sensitive; a feeling of open purity is attached to the work and a deep cleansing breath in which all worries can be, at least for the moment, dispelled. ....The Appalachian Way, Walk This Road, Marie, A Kind of Kindness and Those Good Old Songs rise above the clouds, above the landscape and witness the world for what it should be. ...His is a spirit that has gone in search of the beauty... and to undertake a drive across a continent, to travel in someone else’s backyard, let alone their shoes, is surely a reason in which to be alive."
Steve Caseman R2 magazine
"Surprisingly, Carolina Sky is Pete's debut solo album. a gently beguiling collection informed by McClelland's pastoral tones, eschewing any suggestion of a false accent, and at times bringing to mind Al Stewart. He skilfully combines elements of country, blues, bluegrass and folk with soft-rock favours on the Chris Rea-style 'War of Love', and Cajun on 'Marie'. Although recorded in under a week there's an unhurried, laid-back feel to Carolina Sky and a line-up of top country session men..adding extra quality to proceedings."
Reg Meuross
"Hi Pete, I think I failed to thank you for the beautiful record! thanks for sending it, it's a lovely intimate album, sounds like an American road trip. I love the personal nature of it and the classic way you tell the stories. Best of luck with it."
Nick Dalton, Maverick Magazine
"McClelland is from the deep south, well Sussex, .. making his way to Nashville to record much of this album. This is a collection of self-penned songs that makes the most of the simplicity of the rhyming couplet and there's a certain charm in the way it all pans out. Marie, as he points out on the sleeve notes, does sound rather like Canned Heat's Going up Country, but it's fun."
Gerry Diver
"Hi Pete - thank you so much for the CD - been listening this morning - great songs! Particularly enjoyed the title track 'Carolina Sky' and also 'Marie.' "


Read all the Reviews The River That Runs Below 2008 (HOBCD1009)
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Blackthorn's second album was released in 2008 on the Hobgoblin Records label. The launch party was held in July at the Gibson Guitar Centre in London, and tracks from the album have been played on BBC Radio 2, Radio Wales, Kent and Shropshire and more, in the USA and Italy and also several internet radio stations.
"Focused and accomplished, this is dignified Anglo Celtic music of the first order" fROOTS 2009. "This lovely album ... superb and uplifting to the spirit" Irish Music Magazine 2008.


Read all the Reviews Far From Home 2004 (HOBCD1002)
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Blackthorn's first proper album was originally released in 2004, but got a new lease of life when it was re-issued by Hobgoblin Records in 2007.
Keltika Magazine (Italy) featured Blackthorn with a rave review and a 2 page colour spread, and two tracks from Far from Home appear on the cover CD. Irish Dancing Magazine featured Far From Home as their Album of the month with a full page review.
Far From Home was featured as the CD of the week on BBC Radio Scotland's "Reel Blend".


Read all the Reviews Ceilidh Party 2003 (HOBCD1001)
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ThingumaJig's album Ceilidh Party was released in 2004 by Hobgoblin Records.
Sing Out! (USA)"British folk band Blackthorn vets Pete and Mannie McClelland join here with players, dancers, and callers who were finalists in the BBC 2 Young Folk Awards. ..Even if you are among the two-left-feet crowd, you'll enjoy the energy and superb musicianship of this album"
Shreds & Patches"... did have me hopping around in the front room ... there is a good selection of circle, long ways, and square dances , Rocky II, Eightsome Reel, Mountain Road, Random Notes, Cock-a-Leekie, Summer Set, ThingumaJigs, and Over the Hill are all good sets, played well, and suit the dances. ... The lovely Tommy Bhetty's Waltz is the best track on the CD, with some beautiful flute playing to go with the circle waltz. ... Altogether a good idea by a good band of musicians.."



VIDEO

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