This was a great uplifting discovery, the True Gents are a mighty 8-piece Collective from Perthshire, Scotland who include amongst their numbers multi-instrumentalist Ross Ainslie (Treacherous Orchestra, Dougie Maclean band) and Gordon Duncan Jr (Son of the legendary piper). Formed in 2006 by Schoolfriends Euan Nicol and Tobe Jeffery the band have continued to evolve and develop their sound as their numbers have grown. Based on their debut album ‘In The Dark, We Set Sail’ which is released on February 17th I’d say they’ve got a great future ahead of them.
They deliver gorgeopus melodic folk which is refreshingly Scottish sounding thanks to all the talented musicians they have on-board and whilst they pull influences from pop, indie and even psychedelia there is no hiding their roots…no false accents here…and the presence of fiddles, whistles, mandolin, accordion bring a lovely Scottish tradtional edge.
They can take the pace up to a driving force when required as they do on the late-60’s psych-tinged ‘Interpol‘…fiddle and percussion have complete control over the throttle with whistles providing heightening accents and lovely intensity. Likewise, on the beautiful moodful sounding ‘1982‘ they are equally adept at lowering it all down to the most soothing of melodies which glide across long accordion notes on which Dave Macfarlane sings. The band know how to pack a strong emotional punch which has a lot to do with the way they have overlaid or interweaved the modern and tradtional, they seem to get that balance just right which must surely come from their collective experiences as well as clearly having a good ear for what works well.
They also know how to inject some fun in the form of the Shantie inspired ‘Blackbeard’s Ghost‘ which is summoned into being by a deep bellowing accordion before whistle and fiddle launch into a feisty pogue-esque number. Likewise ‘Seasick‘ and ‘The Barrel are Full‘ will encourage any crowd to rapidly find their legs…they have all the ingredients to go down a storm at any festival.
I’d say these lads are going to be in hot demand and they knocks the socks off of the likes Mumford and Sons so if you are a festival organiser book’em now…it’ll be a party!
In The Dark, We Set Sail has been four years in the making and boasts a formiddable 17 tracks and will be released as a £6 digital download or £10 CD digipak, which can be pre-ordered on their website. As a bonus for people pre-ordering, they are giving away a free download of their first release ‘True Gents EP’.
Members:
Toby Jeffery and Euan Nicol – Songwriting, Guitars, Vocals
Dave Macfarlane – Fiddle, Guitar, vocals and sound production
Ian Scobie – Accordian
Gordy Duncan – Drums and Percussion
Stevie Bairstow – Bass, rear vocals
Ross Ainslie- Cittern, Mandolin, Whistles
Richie Minto- Mandolin/psychedelia
www.thetruegents.co.uk
www.facebook.com/thetruegents