Introducing: Foy Vance - Blues, Soul and Broken Love Songs from Bangor
My path to discovering the Irish musician Foy Vance was - like the discovery of Jack Savarotti and White Buffalo - sparked off by watching the TV series "Son's of Anarchy". Ed Sheeran had a recorded a version of Vance's song "Make It Rain" for the show's final season soundtrack. The song, which I loved, led me to discover the writer. Vance's slower, more heartfelt version just blew me away on the first listen. I wanted to hear some of his other songs, so I visted www.foyvance.com to find out more about the finely moustached singer/songwriter........
FOY VANCE - MAKE IT RAIN - LIVE AT BANGOR ABBEY (AUDIO)
Foy Vance was born in the North Ireland town of Bangor, but his passion for traditional music was born in the southern states of America. As a child, Foy relocated with his father, a preacher, to the American Midwest settling in Oklahoma. With his father, Foy travelled the American South, widening his horizons and absorbing the rich musical traditions he was exposed to. Returning to Ireland some years later, Foy began writing his own music, deeply shaped by the sounds of his youth.
FOY VANCE - HOMEBIRD (LIVE)
FOY VANCE - MELROSE EP INTERVIEW
FOY VANCE - A CHANGE GONNA COME (LIVE)
Vance's first single "Gabriel and the Vagabond" was released on 18 December 2006 on Wurdamouth Records. The single's B-side was "Indiscriminate Act of Kindness". The songs "Homebird" and "Gabriel and the Vagabond" were both featured in the second season of the US TV drama Grey's Anatomy.
"Indiscriminate Act of Kindness" was featured in a TV commercial for Great Ormond Street Hospital, which was aired in the UK up until Christmas of 2006. Vance, who often uses alternative tunings for his guitar, had previously released two limited edition EPs on Wurdamouth Records, Live Sessions and the Birth of the Toilet Tour and Watermelon Oranges.
In early 2008 Foy was invited to perform at a number of prisons in England; this included New Hall's women's prison and Full Sutton maximum security prison in York.
On 31 January 2011 Vance went to Los Angeles to finish the recording of The Melrose EP with David Holmes. During his trip to L.A., Vance put on a special show for fans.
As part of Belfast Music Week 2011, Vance hosted a hoedown branded as "Foy Vance and Friends". It featured a spread of Foy's close friends from Belfast who joined him on the stage. The event sold out Ulster Hall in Belfast.
On 27 August 2012 Vance released The Melrose EP on Communion Records and performed at BBC's Proms in the Park in Belfast.
Afterwards, in late 2012, Vance was selected as one of the support acts for British artist Ed Sheeran's UK tour. As well as his support slot on the tour, Vance came on stage during Sheeran's main set to duet on his song "Kiss Me". Vance then went on to support Sheeran on the US leg of his tour, where the pair again duetted. Sheeran has also been known to cover Vance's song "Guiding Light," which often closes Vance's headline sets.
In early 2013, Vance signed with Glassnote Records and finished work on his album, Joy of Nothing, which was released 26 August 2013. The album announcement was accompanied by a music video for the song "Joy of Nothing" which featured Vance and his daughter, Ella. The album included vocal features from Bonnie Raitt and Ed Sheeran. On 10 June 2013 Vance released a 22-minute documentary titled Recording Nothing which shows the writing and recording process for the album.
With “Joy Of Nothing,” Foy Vance crafted a masterwork of the sweet hurt of love and what it does to the men and women involved with all of the fallout. Vance works with those familiar refrains of finding and holding onto a guiding light, of falling back on one’s resiliency (with the backing vocal help of Bonnie Raitt on the excellent cut, “You and I”), of shutting off from the world and living behind guarded emotional walls, of knowing the contents of one’s soul better than anyone else ever could and of ripping everything up, throwing the scraps into the air and just going for whatever gusto might still be left to have in this life of such short terms.
Foy has been writing about these spectacular miseries for years. Since his debut, “Hope,” in 2007, Vance has made the flutter and flail of happiness his chief export. That record ended with his now nine-year-old daughter Ella singing a hidden track version of “You Are My Sunshine,” a song that famously includes mention of the gray skies, if only to punctuate the sunshine and its effects. He uses this same method to describe both the birth and death of love, many times over. Vance is moved by the fractions of love and sentiment, giving himself over to the quiet deluge. His is a voice that rattles you and forces you to let it in so that you may all enjoy a dark room, a modest fire and something to toast with.
“Joy of Nothing” is a record that makes love feel like the most alive and powerful force in the world. It presents a collection of 10 stories that show — with rousing, tear-the-sky-out-of-the-ceiling and all of the bodies out of the ground passion and equally impassioned tenderness – how everyone chooses their own verses. They often find their ways to tragic ends, but Vance reminds us constantly that we reap what we sow and sometimes we’re reaping very little. He presents the sadness that we find in our coffers as something valuable, as something that shouldn’t be dismissed as failure. He presents the sadness that he’s collected as rich with importance – with as much significance to his happiness as anything else.
FOY VANCE - CLOSED HANDS, FULL OF FRIENDS - LIVE
The songs on “Joy Of Nothing” are all heartbreakers. They are uplifting in their many forms of destruction. Vance presents to us broken love and trampled upon happiness in a way that makes us want more of it, as if it is exactly what we should be looking for. He gives us people who aren’t fine, but will be all right in the end. You can sense that they will find happiness when it’s meant for them. They will burden their hearts and they will rid them of the black smoke that comes from fried wires and belts, when the entire spirit feels like it’s breaking down. These are anthems that remind us that the spirit always rebounds. Vance just hugs tight the loved ones that haven’t left and he twists the corners of his mustache a little tighter, reveling in the light pinks and soft oranges of his many twilights, braced for another verse.
Foy performed at Tennents Vital on 15 August 2013 along with headliners Snow Patrol, and also toured with Bonnie Raitt throughout the United Kingdom. He and Ed Sheeran traded cameos, with Sheeran joining Vance on stage at the Bowery Ballroom on 4 November 2013 and Vance joining Sheeran at Madison Square Garden on 7 November 2013.
On 12 November 2013, Joy of Nothing won the inaugural Northern Ireland Music Prize for best album.
FOY VANCE - JOY OF NOTHING
Foy took part in a Channel 4 series called 4Thought.tv. speaking about how profound the Hymn "Amazing Grace" is, and how it impacted him hearing a vagabond at Ground Zero, New York, playing this song. Channel 4 then went on to create their own documentary about Foy where he talks about all aspects of his career from growing up, playing shows around toilets in Ireland, playing a show in New York with Pete Townshend, to organically recording his debut album Hope.
He recently recorded and then released the superb “Live at Bangor Abbey!” in February 2015.
We really hope to hear more of this talented musician when his popularity grows worldwide - as it rightly deserves to. Let the kids cut their rock and roll teeth on the pop-orientated acoustics of the youthful ex-busker Sheeran. Us older music fans have the master story-teller Foy Vance to listen to. He sings about love, life, and heartache with mature world-weary experience and emotion.
The intimate and informative online documentary about recording The Joy of Nothing which you can see for free at www.recordingnothing.com gives you a great insight into the songwriter and his music and will certainly make you want to buy his CD's and go and see him play live.
LIVE AT BANGOR ABBEY - OFFICIAL "MAKING OF" TRAILER
