Product Reviews
British singer/songwriter Bobby Long came to recognition when his friend Robert Pattinson sang his song "Let Me Sign" (co-written with Marcus Foster) on the soundtrack to the popular vampire film Twilight in 2008. A Winter Tale, his debut studio album for ATO Records, demonstrates that he has spent a lot of time listening to early albums by Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Johnny Cash, having learned the chords and fingerpicking he employs on his guitar, some harmonica playing, and, particularly, his poetic lyric-writing style. His husky singing voice also sounds a bit like the young Dylan, or perhaps more like a less arch Tom Petty. His lyrics have a stream-of-conscious style, revealing a poetic persona at the heart of his songs, and it's the lonely hero that appears most often, a person who is romantic himself even if he seems unable to be romantic with a potential loved one at whom the songs are directed. "I'm crazy to love," he declares in "A Passing Tale," "and I'm crazy to die/I'm lost in this world, and I don't know why." In "Two Years Old," while the music may suggest Johnny Cash, the words suggest Wilfred Owen, the World War I-era British poet who died in the trenches, but not before capturing the loss of innocence -- and of life -- suffered in a harsh conflict. At such a moment, it's clear Long isn't just a young man playing with words. ~ William Ruhlman, Rovi
Product Notes
2011 debut studio album from the British singer/songwriter. . Currently residing in New York City, the 24-year old Long has been writing finely-crafted songs since taking up the guitar at age 17; from then on he's been creating memorable songs inhabited by hauntingly poetic lyrics. As Long became more entrenched in London's burgeoning open mic circuit, he met actor and fellow musician Robert Pattinson, who would go on to sing "Let Me Sign" (co-written by Long and friend Marcus Foster) over a crucial dramatic scene in the blockbuster film Twilight. The inclusion of the song in the film's soundtrack gave Long a head start on a legion of fans. A Winter Tale features Nona Hendryx (LaBelle) on backing vocals, B. J. Cole (Elton John, Sting) on pedal steel, and Icelandic singer Lay Low on several tracks.