ELLES BAILEY

The result of a close collaboration with producer Luke Potashnick (guitarist for the Glasgow band The Temperance Movement and a former producer for successful artists such as Paloma Faith and Katie Melua), the new album "Can’t Take My Story Away" by Bristol-based English singer and pianist Elles Bailey moves effortlessly between blues, rock, and Americana, opening with the title track’s declaration of intent, "Can’t Take My Story Away", and closing after about 45 minutes with the delicate and heart-wrenching piano ballad "Starling", dedicated to the death of a friend of the musician. The album’s "collector’s edition", however, concludes with the two bonus tracks "Back To You" and "Best Believe". Standing out between the album’s two poles are the velvety guitar phrasings of Potishnak and longtime collaborator Ash Tucker in "Blessed", caressed by strings, a "Better Days" born from the outline of a song that the parents of Catfish singer Matt Long gave to Bailey after their son’s passing, and a relaxed "Constant Need To Keep Going" with country-tinged atmospheres and a melancholic tone in which Bailey converses with producer, sound engineer, and multi-instrumentalist Ethan Thomas Robert Johns (Paul McCartney, Michael Kiwanuka, Laura Marling, and others).