Richard Townend/The Mighty Bosscats: Bossman

Richard Townend/The Mighty Bosscats: Bossman

Richard Townend is one of the most original and prolific singer-songwriters on the UK blues music scene and over many years he has produced a regular flow of highly entertaining and smart albums both with his posse of musician friends in the band The Mighty Bosscats and as a solo artist. The new soon to be released album 'Bossman', a chunky affair of fourteen tracks, certainly adds to his reputation as a consistently accomplished and intriguing wordsmith and musician.

For this album Richard has put together a collection of absorbing proper songs about our lives, picking up on moments, ideas and events that touch us all, missed opportunities, places we feel comfortable (we all have one), anger at betrayed love, sad departures and there is even a pop at the skin deep fakery that has infected us from the likes of Kanye West and celebrity culture in 'Who Are You'.

Without knowing, you can imagine that, as a song-writer, he is writing from experience. There is a deal of reflection and introspection here to which we can all relate...for example, it is difficult not to be moved by the beautiful track 'Every day' which sprang from the death of his father and contains the killer hook 'there's not a time when I don't think of you' and I urge you to go and check out the video of his song 'You are You and I am I' which is a brilliant piece about slipping apart. But hey, Richard is a cheerful guy and it's not all about sad screw-ups.! His tracks 'Molly's Dive', 'Time' and the title track 'Ask The Bossman' are all up-beat pieces about looking inside and seeing the good stuff, with 'Time' in particular bringing some solid beat Johnny Cash type urgency and some smart guitar. Also, if you liked the way Kris Kristofferson managed to get some dry humour out of some difficult situations, you will love what Richard does lyrically to a good few of these tracks.

Apart from a bit of vocal double tracking, there are none of the familiar acoustic solo loops on here and once again he has alongside him - adding colour and breadth to his husky mellow voice – the crew of The Mighty Bosscats who provide just the perfect complement to every well arranged track.
This is a first-rate song-writer's album. It overflows with telling lyrics and ideas. It is an album to Listen To. When you have done that, Listen To It Again.

Richard Townend/The Mighty Bosscats: The 7 Deadly Sins

It's not often you find a songwriter turning to the Bible or Dante for material but this is what the talented song-writer Richard Townend has bravely done with his latest album 'The 7 Deadly Sins'. I say bravely - not because the catholics have been arguing about them ever since Dante came up with his Purgatory to Paradise mountain- but because it is one of those subjects on which everyone has an opinion. We can all cheerfully own up to a sin or a vice – or, if necessary, innocently profess to not encountering any of them.

The album rather usefully comes with a printed version of the lyrics and some background as to the writer's journey to understanding the sins. This is a sensible move by Richard as he has taken on a complex subject, given it his beady song-writer's eye and produced a fascinating sidelong alternative take on all of them. The lyrics are crucial, smart and dead centre. If you look carefully - you can have a quite small sin, which, for all I know, is probably not as bad.

Greed, for example, is an interesting take on the 'blood diamond' trade, whereas Envy homes in on a prisoner serving time, with a lyric full of bitter sentiment about how destructive this sin can be.
For me a stand out track is his cynical piece on Lust which not only characterises this sin as maybe 'Fifteeen Minutes' of passion but is the best example of the fine musicianship that runs throughout the album. Here Greg Camburn is given full licence to let his sax roam free beautifully in an arrangement that takes its time and winds its way around the telling lyrics with Richard's guitar setting the tone. All the tracks demonstrate thoughtful arrangements allowing everyone a piece of the action.

I am sure that somewhere I have heard Richard acknowledge Herbie Hancock's influence and certainly there is a cool jazz vibe present all through this album making it readily accessible to a far wider audience than is usual for Richard or his band The Mighty Bosscats.

Without doubt, the album works at two levels. He has produced an articulate and interesting snapshot of those seven sins that pursue us wherever we go and then again this is a fine production that brings to our speakers, superb musicianship, a delightful cool mix of blues, swing and jazz influences all embraced by Richard's mellow singing voice.

Richard Townend - Hebden Bridge Blues Festival 2013

Richard Townend - Hebden Bridge Blues Festival 2013

Opening the door to the Acoustic stage found The Hat in the company of Richard Townend - and what great company he is. Affable and cheerful, Richard seems to chat away to himself whilst cleverly including the attentive audience in his sometime dry assessment of what he is up to....but he is actually up to a totally absorbing set. Using a mix of guitars and some beautifully executed loops, double loops, backing lines and over-lays, he conjures a magical kaleidoscopic mix of rhythms, riffs and top lines which moved smoothly from self-penned blues numbers to complex jazz influenced instrumentals – or as he put it on one occasion “I have to put some chords in this bit”...and on another as he changed guitars mid track “and now I need a bass to play with”. Neither these delightful throw-aways or the technical gizmos do anything to disguise his undoubted musical skill and dexterity or his relaxed mellow singing which flowed through the room and warmly embraced an appreciative audience in a packed house.

Although with his band The Mighty Boss Cats, as a soloist Richard was off the scene for a while and is now coming back with a vengeance. A Blues Award nomination and this set shows that there is clearly a lot more good stuff waiting for us...