Video: ‘Start Up Again’ by Gren Bartley

Last June Jo and I went to see her folks in Bridgnorth and stayed over at the (highly recommended) Bull’s Head in Chelmarsh. The night we were there, they’d booked a singer/songwriter by the name of Gren Bartley, who turned out to be very good indeed.

With rather superb guitar-picking skills and a lilting but strong and clear vocal style, he’s reminiscent of a whole bunch of ’60s & ’70s acoustic folk/blues guitarists: Davy Graham, Tim Hardin, Ralph McTell and Jackson C. Frank to name but a few.

Jo and I liked him so much we bought him a pint at the interval and then a copy of his first album, Carry Her Safe, at the end of the night. That turned out to be a wonderfully varied mix of folk, blues, bluegrass and instrumental guitar numbers.

This video accompanies ‘Start Up Again’, a track from his forthcoming album, Songs to Scythe Back the Overgrown, which is due to be released in March this year:

Gren also plays (or has played) in a duo with fiddle player Tom Kitching. They’ve released two albums: Rushes (2007) and Boundary (2009), both of which are available on Spotify and via Gren’s YouTube Channel.

To support his new album in March – three more songs from which you can listen to on SoundCloud – Gren will be touring folks clubs, pubs & festivals. The details are on his website, grenbartley.com.