Jack Badcock, is probably best known as a founding member of the award-winning Dallahan, a band whose thirst for musical adventure and desire to push boundaries has been clearly evidenced of the course of three albums, all of which have been covered and highly-praised here on Folk Radio UK.
Keeping with that same sense of adventure, Jack Badcock has followed his ambition to explore writing more in the singer songwriter style which has already led to the release of his debut track Too Many Things which has already picked up some well-deserved praise from BBC Radio Scotland’s Bruce MacGregor.
This Friday, sees the release of his second single Our World, a strong single which immediately nails those songwriting credentials to the wall for all to hear.
Aided by John Lowrie on piano and snare drum, Siobhan Miller on backing vocals and Dallahan’s Ciaran Ryan on fiddle, Our World reflects on the hopelessness of situations that many have no say in, something we should all be reminded of… “If God’s dice puts you in some downtrodden nation, fate was more or less decided from birth”. His lines are memorable and hopeful and like all good songwriters leave the listener with a lasting impression…touching on the history of slavery and empire he also looks to the future with the chorus message “our world isn’t big enough, to steal it from each other / False words couldn’t be enough, to save us from each other”.
Badcock’s vocals, over a sympathetic gentle musical setting, provides a strong emotional delivery. All the elements, from the musicians to Siobhan’s gorgeous backing vocals, make this a winner on so many levels and more importantly sets the groundwork for what is sure to be a great solo career.
On his second release, Jack said: “I wrote this song as both a lamentation and a celebration of what humanity is capable of. It offers criticism of what society fails to do for the welfare of its people, but ultimately it is a song of hope that acknowledges the power our species has to achieve almost everything we can imagine.”
Jack was raised in Co. Kilkenny, Ireland and later Yorkshire, England, splitting his first eighteen years between the two before moving to Scotland as a teenager in 2011, where he immersed himself in its traditional music scene.
Aged eighteen, while living in Edinburgh, Jack formed a partnership with multi-instrumentalist Ciaran Ryan, initially cutting their teeth playing traditional music on the Capital’s pub gig circuit, before going on to tour the UK, Germany and Denmark. The duo would go on to form Dallahan in 2013, which rapidly became one of Scotland’s busiest international folk bands. To date they have recorded three albums with numerous tours in the UK, the USA, Canada and all over Europe.
Jack has also performed and recorded with Rura, Siobhan Miller, Dougie MacLean and The Royal Scottish National Orchestra among many others. He was also a finalist in the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year Award.
Our World was recorded at Viewbank Studio by Pablo Lafuente, with additional recordings during lockdown taking place at Mango Mansion Studio by Jack himself. The single was mixed by Scott Wood at Oak Ridge Studios and mastered by Chris wait at Gran’s House Studio.
Our World will be available to buy on Friday 11th December 2020. It will be available on all usual streaming sites as well as being available to purchase at www.jackbadcock.com.