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Eddi Reader
‘Love Is The Way’ was made over three sessions in a little recording room down an abandoned alley in a few sunny / thundery hours in Glasgow, Scotland in the summer of 2008.
‘Love Is The Way’ is the new album from Eddi Reader on Rough Trade Records. Since the early 80s Eddi has helped to define the landscape in which folk artists and singer-songwriters navigate. Her incomparable voice and positive outlook have been a much loved fixture in the British music scene since her band, Fairground Attraction,  hit the charts with the song "Perfect" in 1988. After Fairground Attraction's breakup,  Reader ventured onto a solo career,  to the delight of both fans and critics, most recently her internationally  acclaimed release ‘The Songs Of Robert Burns’.
Eddi’s self produced new album sees her move away from the traditional folk leanings of her last two releases and into a rich vein of modern classic songwriting. Her  aim is to communicate a similar feeling of intimacy and honesty with her music. “I love the way when you’re listening to a Willie Nelson record for example, you just feel like you’re in the the room with the performer and the musicians - you feel like you’re in company…”
With ‘Love Is The Way’ she continues to fly the flag for original, distinctive songwriting. “I have a passionate love of instinctive, beautiful songs as well as a slightly insane attachment to romantic chord structures,” explains Eddi. “Words that speak of some universal humanist truth, that can be 'thrown away' with no regrets.”
Eddi produced the record herself  in a little studio in Glasgow above the Glasgow to Helensburgh train line. The recording sessions were originally earmarked for extra tracks for a ‘Best Of Eddi Reader..’ record, but Eddi was so taken with the results that they were achieving that the decision was elected to scrap the Best Of and proceed with the new record you hold in your hands.
“The studio has lots of windows that let in light and the noise of Argyle Street, never mind the train that kept on coming under the floor,” says Eddi. “We recorded sessions with the band playing live and beautiful, passionate performances were captured. Boo Hewerdine, my songwriting compadre, had written some gems that I was determined to capture and John Douglas from the Trashcan Sinatras, writer of the classic “Wild Mountainside’, had presented me with stunning songs that we’re inspired by my recent life experiences. I remembered Jack Maher from Sharon Shannons band had a beautiful tune, so I called him up and got him to come over from Dublin. I had found a lost Brian Wilson song called “Sweet Mountain Of Love” and I had a song from my old friend Declan O Rourke (award winning Irish singer/songwriter) called “Love Is The Way”  that seemed to sum up the themes of the album. I felt like I had a classic bunch of songs to work with. Boo and John and Jack taught the chords to each other and we set sail.”
“My one ambition with this record is the hope that whoever hears it will use it as I have used it, to soundtrack life a little bit. To dance with bare feet, singing along with me. And - If you listen carefully you will hear the Helensburgh train. Always came in on time.”