November 2011

The great Scottish singer and song writer Jackie Leven passed away on Monday, 14th November, at 8 o'clock in the evening. He had suffered from cancer.

"There are spiritual story tellers and there are soulful story tellers. I hope to be a soulful story teller. I see the two kinds as two different directions. Spiritual is ascending. Sky, God and all that. I hope my story telling is going down into the earth, is wetter, has more moisture." Jackie Leven

For further information please go to www.jackie-leven.com .

In a career stretching over forty years, Jackie Leven has carved an impressive reputation as a uniquely gifted singer-songwriter. From his emergence as leader of the underrated DOLL BY DOLL in the seventies, through well documented addiction problems which Leven overcame with remarkable strength of will, culminating in a solo resurgence through the 1980s to the here and now, Jackie has amassed an amazing body of work – the composer of over four hundred songs, including arguably his greatest song – ‘Call Mother’, from the album ‘Mystery of Love’ (ranked by Q magazine as one of ‘100 Best Albums of All Time’.

If sales didn’t always reflect the overwhelmingly positive critical reception his albums received, he nonetheless remained a perceptive writer and performer. Jackie was imbued with a restless creativity, and always searching for new settings for his ruminative lyrical forays, laced with humour and melodic grace. As a performer, Jackie could enthral and entrance the audience with picaresque tales taken from first-hand experience.

Those that have worked with Jackie will know of his mordant wit and very idiosyncratic world view. His latest release, Wayside Shrines and The Code of the Travelling Man, recorded with multi-instrumentalist Michael Cosgrave was yet more proof of Leven’s enduring talent and inexhaustible creative energies.

Countries

UK ex Channel Islandsl(inc p+p) £12.50 Europe(inc p+p) £13.00 USA(inc p+p) £14.00 NZ,Australia(inc p+p)ption 4 £14.50

One Long Cold Morning is Jackie's NEW official bootleg featuring five sensational new studio recordings, plus great live performances and stories from all over the world. Buy it here!

...listen to the title track http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEd-t7jrJJU

ALSO......RELEASED MID SEPTEMBER ON COOKING VINYL

WAYSIDE SHRINES AND THE CODE OF THE TRAVELLING MAN

By

JACKIE LEVEN and MICHAEL COSGRAVE

Says Jackie: ‘everybody needs a code to live and die by. Even a non-code is a code. My life is built round hotel rooms and the rigours of touring. A day off in Goethe 87, my favourite Berlin hotel, is an example of the sort of environment where I do my best thinking. When I’m lucky, it’s the thought of the heart that shines through in the songs that come forth – these songs are the code of the travelling man.’ for lots more info go to Kitchen Confidential