James Riley - Lightning Strikes
LCM Song Of The Day: ‘Lightning Strikes’ - James Riley
Our featured track today ‘Lightning Strikes’ is by fast rising London based singer-songwriter James Riley. It’s taken from his debut album ’Transatlantica’ released in 2018 and produced by Grammy-winning Matthew Odmark. James will be headlining with his band on May 16th at the intimate and multi-award winning Green Note in Camden. Also watch out for his new single ‘New York Minute’.
Born of a transatlantic partnership, James grew up in South East London listening to the folk and soul sound of 70s America and wrote his first melody at the age of four. His first guitar, acquired at the age of nine, became the tool for surviving the tumult of a nowhere place, and helped James find somewhere he felt he belonged. In his early twenties, he took off, alone once again, hitchhiking and busking through Europe from Amsterdam to Istanbul, writing songs along the way. Back in the UK, these songs became a band, but eventually James had to shed another skin, and disembarked in Nashville, Tennessee. Here he found his producer and they set about making the album which had traveled with him to his maternal homeland, where it could finally get free.