THE quite remarkable story of how a Scottish singer’s debut album made at the age of 50 has hit the top of the country music charts can be revealed by The National today.
Eleanor Reid’s country fusion album Living Room was recorded between lockdowns last year at Black Bay Studios on the Isle of Lewis, the most remote recording studio in the UK.
Reid already has a rather famous fan – pop star Cyndi Lauper took time out to call Reid and encouraged her to record and perform her music.
Now the single from the album called In The Distance will come out tomorrow.
Born in Linwood in Renfrewshire, Reid was brought up by a jazz singer and self-taught musician. She always loved music and taught herself several instruments. She was a teacher and mother before going to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland at the age of 45 to be trained in classical piano and flute.
After graduating with a BA Hons in Music, she decided to pull together a lifetime of songwriting and with the album produced by her brother Jami, she became the proverbial overnight success as she hit her half-century.
With no publicity outside of a very small following on Facebook page and Instagram, the album shot to the top of Amazon UK Country Music Charts.
Reid was selected by Celtic Connections Festival 2021 for the Danny Kyle Open Stage and featured on Celtic Music Radio during the festival. She is now working on other online appearances.
She said: “I’ve been bowled over by the response to the album. I’m not quite sure how this happened as me and my brother Jami have been doing it all on a shoestring.
“Lockdown did me a favour as I finally got round to recording the album of my dreams after years of feeling too scared to put my music out there. Now seeing the response to it, my dreams are just getting bigger. I would love to go to Nashville and play there and maybe even support Dolly Parton one day.”
Reid grew up around big band jazz thanks to her well-known Glaswegian father, the band leader and singer Tommy Reid. She developed and performed her own song-writing fusion of folk, country, pop and jazz, but never released any official recordings until January.
According to the producers: “Living Room distils a Celtic essence throughout its varied songscapes as it explores feelings of hope, grief and joy. From the super catchy opening track On The Hill written atop Arthur’s Seat to the closing epic In My Mother’s Living Room, the songs show a delicately assured knack for capturing some of life’s greatest challenges in catchy melodies which pluck the heartstrings.”
Reid said: “The title of the album derives from the song In My Mother’s Living Room, a tribute to my mother’s Celtic heritage and the ties that bind us all to our mothers and their mothers before them. These songs span three decades of my life, from student to teacher to mother to grieving daughter, back to student and now to recording artist.”
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