AL Lewis
Genre: Acoustic, Singer-Songwriter, Folk
Location: Tooting, London, England
Discography: In the Wake (2010) Our Line Remain EP (2012) Battles (2013) Live @ SPOC EP (2013) [English]
Record Label: Al Lewis Music (Independent)
We have to give a huge thanks to Al Lewis for being one of the inspirations to start the Laurel Canyon Group back in May 2013. Multi award-winning Al is a great songwriter with a pure vocal. His music has almost a 1960's retro vibe, with a modern twist. We are big fans of Al's music here at LCM.
Born in North Wales, Al has been compared to the likes of James Taylor, Josh Rouse and Meic Stevens which place him in good company with the music he is creating. Taking elements from these revered influences, Al keeps his material fresh, delivering each melodic track with a modern twist and youthful energy.
Al's latest English-language album ‘Battles’ was recorded and produced by Charlie Peacock (producer of the Double Grammy Award winners The Civil Wars) at his home studio in Nashville, Tennessee. The album saw Al reunited with his long-time collaborator Sarah Howells (Paper Aeroplanes) and talked of the passing of time, life's trials and tribulations and the endless search for fulfillment.
Previous to ‘Battles’ there was the Welsh Music Prize nominee 'In the Wake' and two Welsh-language albums 'Sawl Ffordd Allan' and 'Ar Gof a Chadw' both spending multiple weeks at Number One in the Welsh Language Album Charts. Al has also scooped the award for 'Best Male Artist' two years in a row (2011/12) at the BBC Radio Cymru Awards.
Al has been gaining praise and support from eminent radio DJs such as BBC Radio 2's Janice Long, Dermot O’Leary and 6music’s Cerys Matthews - he was invited for a live interview and acoustic session on Cerys’s show and he also features on her latest album 'Hullabaloo' – performing a duet with her on the song 'Cana fel Cana'r Aderyn'.
In the past Al has also welcomed encouraging support from Huw Stephens and Steve Lamacq, both of whom have championed Al's music on their respective BBC Radio 1, 2 and 6 Music shows. In September of this year Al was personally invited by Huw Stephens to embark on a tour of Universities performing as part of the new 'Coffee House Sessions' circuit.
The single ‘Make a Little Room’, was play-listed on BBC Radio 2. An honest and heartfelt song which artfully blends Al’s skillful, soft acoustics with his emotive vocals, a trait reminiscent to all tracks in his repertoire. An encouraging step forward for the native welsh singer.
Al joined Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra on their UK tour over the summer, culminating in a sold-out performance at Kew Gardens. Al also performed in support of them again at the Royal Albert Hall in London November 2014.
Al also had his own TV special on Welsh TV in 2014.
One of Al’s biggest successes so far was his Christmas single based upon the Dylan Thomas short story, ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’. It was the first bilingual song containing Welsh lyrics to make it on to the BBC Radio 2 playlist and was hailed by Gary Barlow as a ‘great song’.
Al has now teamed up with American singer/songwriter Alva Leigh to form a new duo Lewis & Leigh the results of which are already gathering fans on both sides of the Atlantic.