Just a reminder that the recordings will take place at the Oh Yeah Building on 3rd July and you can attend either the 2pm session or the 7pm session. Tickets cost £9 which includes entry to your chosen session and advance purchase of the completed album which will be sent to you as soon as mixing, mastering and pressing are completed. You will be credited in the liner notes and your copy of the album will be personalised by me.

One more reminder, tickets for these events are strictly limited so get ‘em while you can!

Tom

As I explained last time I’m writing and demoing new songs at the moment and sometimes the easiest way to capture a new tune is to make a quick video. I’ve decided that rather than practicing the songs for months with a band then spending weeks in a studio trying to get the perfect version, that it might be fun to share some of these songs with people at the time of their inception so you’ll hopefully hear how the songs develope and progress towards the finished article.

The song that follows, “The Ural Winter“, was written this morning, filmed at about 18:30 and was uploaded earlier this evening. This represents the quickest turn-around from writing to public “release” I’ve ever had. I hope this doesn’t show to much in the quality of the song. At the moment I’m not sure how I feel about this tune; it’s too fresh for me to have an opinion. I’m certainly not sure if it’ll make it on the next album at this stage, but at the very least it’s a song that didn’t exist this time yesterday, and that’s a nice feeling.

Less chatter! Here it is, I hope you enjoy:

If you missed the first of these video demos you can see the last one here.

All the best,

Tom

BOXING CLEVER: Tom McShane
Genre: Indie / Alternative
From: Belfast, Northern Ireland United Kingdom

Tom Mcshane is a singer songwriter from Northern Ireland who takes you on a tour of his emotions with his heart firmly pinned to his sleeve. Like a mellow, melancholic David Ford or Will Oldham if he’d been brought up on the streets of Belfast instead of Kentucky Tom reaches right into your chest tugging at your heart and leaving you breathless. Such honesty is rare in a scene that emphasises style and fashion over passion and should be treasured by anyone with a passion for music.

Tom has recently released a single, ‘Fighter’, a lo-fi tale of a son following his boxing father into the ring. ‘Fighter’ was released as a split 7″ single with fellow Belfastians, the altogether more mainstream sounding indie pop trio Escape Act (of which more tomorrow).

If you’ve grown tired of run of the mill singer songwriters like David Gray then Tom McShane has arrived to restore your faith.

Thank you kindly, sir!

Tom

TOM MCSHANE – FIGHTER – PENNY DISTRIBUTION

Slow burning lament, touched with melancholy and exploding into falsetto when the emotion calls for it, a touching song from an artist with a pure soul…

Jeremy Chick, Subba-cultcha.com, July 2008

Thanks, Jeremy!

Tom 

‘FIGHTER’ (Penny Distribution)

Spot of lo-fi alt country from Northern Ireland, anyone? Tom McShane channels the likes of Uncle Tupelo and Smog on this great track, which eloquently tells the story of a boxer’s inner conflict. Only deep martial drums resonate beneath McShane’s timeless voice for much of the track, with a simple but devastatingly effective little guitar lick cropping up every now and then too. An extremely promising taster.

Stephen Errity // Hot Press // Volume 32, Issue 13 // 16th July 2008

Thanks Stephen!

Here’s a little rundown of the shows I played last week.

Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs // Auntie Annies Porter House Belfast // 19th June
Last Thursday I had the extreme pleasure of supporting Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs. I’m a huge Holly Golightly fan so this was a really big deal for me. I saw her play live once before, back in 2003 I think when Fortune Cookie put her and the Chalets on in the Pavilion. That was a great show. Happy times. She was due to play here again last year or the year before with the Brokeoffs but when I arrived at the venue myself and a good few other disappointed punters were told the show had been cancelled due to a sewage leak or something.

This time around the show went off without a hitch. It was my first experience of her two piece line up with Lawyer Dave aka the Brokeoffs. It’s awesomely compelling. They both play guitar and he operates a dismantled drum kit via a variety of foot pedals. After the show they gave me a copy of a bootleg album called “Nobody Will Be There” which they’re only selling on the tour. It’s fantastic and very much captures the live experience. They have a huge sound for a two-man band. We also traded vinyl; I gave them Fighter/God Says and they gave me a split 7” they’ve done with The Stratford Sparrows.

It was a great night and we managed to sell quite a few pre-release copies of the single as well as some copies of Departures and a couple of t-shirts too. As for our performance my band played a faultless set but I was very uncomfortable on stage. It’s the worst case of stage fright I’ve had in a long time. I really don’t know where it came from but I could barely open my eyes on stage and any hope of having a witty repartee with the audience went out the window. Plus Conor was unavailable on the night so we played a bit of a rock set with Ross on Guitar and a Rich redrafted on bass and Nick on drums. It was good fun but slightly compromised in terms of the songs I could play. Also, I opened the set with a few solo numbers. I really doing like doing that, I think solo numbers are okay within a set, it allows to work with the dynamic of the set, but just to start solo, then bring a band on… it’s bullshit. It lacks imagination and it’s confusing for an audience.

Fighter/God Says Tour Date 1 // Mason’s Derry // 20th June
This was great fun; a real road trip. Nick, Conor and myself headed up together to the soundtrack American Graffiti. Sweet! I didn’t quite know what to make of Mason’s at first. Within minutes of our arrival two boyos were ejected when a drunken argument graduated into a full-on fist fight and a short time later some young lady threw a strop and started throwing stuff about the bar. To be fair, the atmosphere at that point was akin to a saloon in the Wild West.

But things improved and by the time we took to the stage everything was great. The sound engineer and the staff were very helpful, friendly people and the clientele were good old fashioned, good natured revellers. The bouncers did good work keeping the spide-riot out on the street and not in the bar.

A local woman took quite a shine to Rich too. Here is a short extract from their discourse:

Enamoured lady: Hey, has anyone ever told you that you look like Louis Theroux?

Rich: Er… no.

Enamoured lady: You do. I love Louis Theroux. I watch a lot of documentaries, so I do.

Rich: Really?

Enamoured lady: Can I buy you a drink? Let me get you a Jägerbomb

Rich: No thanks, I wouldn’t drink that stuff: my body is a temple.

Enamoured lady: I worship at your temple.

Rich: *gulp*

Rich Dale:

Rich Dale lookalike, Louis Theroux:

Both bands played excellent shows and I got to meet the legendary Stephen McAuley. He’s a really great guy and we got on very well. If he were eligible to run and I were eligible to vote in the presidential elections, he could most certainly count on my support! After much vodka was disposed of we hit the road back to Belfast. I think we got in at about 4am. Anyways: here are a few snaps:

Nick & Conor on Derry’s walls:

Me:

Chris, Escape Act:

Ross & I:

In-Store Show // Back Beat Records Belfast // 21st June
Back Beat Records is, unless I’m very much mistaken, one of only two remaining independent record shops in Belfast. It’s recently changed hands and the new proprietor, Robert Holmes has big ideas for the place. He and his pal, Marty Neill are certainly to be admired for attempting to reverse the trend closure after closure. I wish them the best of luck.

Each Saturday they’ll be putting on a series of acoustic In-Store shows. I played the first of these last weekend. It was great and I would recommend any local bands/musicians to contact the guys about playing there. The atmosphere was really warm and welcoming and the turn out was good, especially considering it was the first one. Robert, himself a singer/songwriter, played a set too. The star of the show though was without a doubt Robert’s four year old daughter, Katie who sang a song she wrote about her baby sister, entitled “I Love You, Evie”. It was a lovely day…

Me:

Robert Holmes:

Katie:

Backbeat Records:

Tower Records – Dublin
Road Records – Dublin
Freebird Records – Dublin
City Discs – Dublin
Plugd Records – Cork
Savin Music Centre – Limerick

Back Beat Records Belfast
Rough Trade – Talbot Road, London
Jumbo – St. Johns Centre, Leeds
Avalanche – Cockburn Street, Edinburgh
Sister Ray – Berwick Street, London
Rough Trade East – Brick Lane, London
Avalanche – Dundas Street, Glasgow
Reflex – Nun Street, Newcastle
Spillers – The Hayes, Cardiff

You can get a digital version of the single from Itunes, Rapsody and all good download sites.

I hope you enjoy!

Tom

The third and final of the Fighter pre-release free download tracks is now available over on my myspace page. This week it’s an acoustic version of Promise Me recorded live in session from Across the Line on BBC Radio Ulster. As with the previous tracks, it will be available for one week only.

 It’s been brought to my attention that non-myspace users can’t download music from the site, if this applies to you, you can download the track from pennydistribution.com. 

I hope you’ve all enjoyed the tracks released in weeks one and two and I hope your appetites are whetted for the single release on 23^rd June. More exciting news on that to come.

 ‘Til then,  

Tom

Hey folks, 

So, my cover of “That’s All There Is” by Nina Nastasia is no longer available for download, but do not fret as quite simply, that’s not all there is. We’re now into the second week of our free download releases in the run up to the Launch of the “Fighter” single. For the next week you, dear friends, will be able to download a cover of Van Morrison’s “Slim Slow Slider” recorded live at the Astral Weeks Revisited concert at the Oh Yeah Music Centre in Belfast on January 5th. 

It was a wonderful event which I was very proud to be a part of. Astral Weeks is a remarkable album and Van Morrison is an exceptional creative figure whose music has enriched my days from a very early age. The evening was a celebration of the 40^th Anniversary of the album and this track, my small tribute to a true legend. 

Of all the songs on Astral Weeks, “Slim Slow Slider” is perhaps the odd man out. In contrast to the free flowing, almost stream of consciousness approach of many of the songs, it has four short, compact verses. I think it was this that attracted me. In spite of its limited word count, it conveys untold emotional depth. And that’s the style of writing I aspire to: maximum narrative and depth in as few lines as possible. 

Mr Gerry Bannon worked the front of house mix on the night and Rocky, Ben & Barrett at Start Together recorded the show and did the post production. 

As before, I hope you all enjoy my rendition. You can download it now from my Myspace music player.   

Tom  

In the run up to the release of Fighter/God Says (the upcoming split seven inch single I’ll be releasing with Escape Act) I’m going to be giving away some free music. For the next three weeks I’ll be making three session/live tracks available for free download through my Myspace music player, each only available for one week. Each track includes includes full color artwork, lyrics and track notes.

This week it’s a cover version of Nina Nastasia’s “That’s All There Is” from her wonderful “The Blackened Air” album. To any fellow Nina Nastasia fans out there, I really hope I haven’t butchered it!

This track was recorded for the BBC’s Across the Line show in January of this year, a couple of weeks before the Fighter recording sessions at Start Together. The BBC session was produced by Paul McClean and engineered by Ciaran Tracey. 

Download it now from my Myspace. 

Tom