Lonesound aka James Ewers has been building a considerable fanbase over the past couple of years thanks to the release of his The Great Outdoors EPs. To date he’s released three, all featuring four songs, and they are now available to purchase on CD. Part of Lonesound’s word-of-mouth success has been his live shows and last night the singer-songwriter supported Jay Brannan at The Borderline. We went along to check out his live show and see if he could hold his on with just a guitar as accompaniment.
Lonesound live is a different experience to listening to his recordings. Whereas his EPs have featured lots of intricate instrumentation, his live show (for the moment anyway) is a solo acoustic performance. They always say that the true test of a great song is whether it translates well as an acoustic number. Lonesound proved last night that he has a catalogue of fantastic songs captivating us from start to finish.
Opening his set with the punchy Don’t Hold Me Back, Lonesound’s impressive guitar skills and strong voice held the audience. Over the course of his set Lonesound showcased his powerful voice letting it loose throughout his set. On the record his voice is a little more restrained and hushed in a Joshua Radin kind of way. (You Don’t Have To Be) Strong proved to be a rather sweet moment as Lonesound sings about being there for someone and helping them through a tough time whilst the emotive A Little While Longer was a goosebumps moment that was simply wonderful. In My Dreams Tonight was stripped back from its original rocky form and sounded simply fantastic. It was one of the strongest vocals of the night and got a great reaction from the audience.
In between songs Lonesound struck up a rapport with the audience explaining the meaning behind some of his lyrics. He explained that Under Her Influence is a song inspired by, but not particularly liked by, his girlfriend. We thought it t was a charming track and one of the highlights of the set.
Our favourite song in the set was closing number As We Go Along. The mid-tempo track has a really catchy melody and definite commercial appeal. It’s perhaps one of the more mainstream-sounding songs we’ve heard from Lonesound and we can imagine it doing pretty well on radio.
Lonesound is a remarkable rising talent that really deserves all the success that comes his way. With strong songs and a polished live performance, he is keeping indie singer-songwriter music alive in an industry that is obsessed with auto-tuned pop, EDM dance beats and R&B. If you don’t know his name, then we suggest you get a copy of The Great Outdoors and give it pride of place in your music collection. Lonesound is an artist that is going places so get in now before everyone else discovers him.
