Nick Harper
Recorded in Abbey Road Studio 2 on Earth Day 2024 ‘Earth Day Blue’ is the 14th studioalbum release from Nick Harper the wildly talented and much loved singer-songwriter. With JohnLeckie in the producer’s chair (Stone Roses, Radiohead, Muse etc.) and Tchad Blake mixing (Tom Waits, Crowded House, Peter Gabriel etc.) the album is a flash mob of high calibre talentassembled for a few hours’ collaboration in a very special space.
But this was not the first time Nick and John had been in session together in Studio 2. It wasway back in 1973 in the very same room that Nick was given his ‘big break’ in the world of music.The duo first ‘worked’ together when Nick aged 8 recorded his first ever songs with John whilstNick’s father Roy was recording his own seminal album ‘Lifemask’ with Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.So the circle has been squared off and the journey is complete!
But this was not the first time Nick and John had been in session together in Studio 2. It wasway back in 1973 in the very same room that Nick was given his ‘big break’ in the world of music.The duo first ‘worked’ together when Nick aged 8 recorded his first ever songs with John whilstNick’s father Roy was recording his own seminal album ‘Lifemask’ with Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.So the circle has been squared off and the journey is complete!
‘Earth Day Blue’ is peppered with acoustic ear-worms written with a Studio 2 Beatlesqueapproach of short immediate songs but with the added brio of a group of studio attendeessometimes driven to sing along to Nick’s guitar and voice adding a party atmosphere to the day.Along the way Nick displays all his (un)usual talents from his trademark virtuoso string-bendingguitar playing and references to the time of his previous session with John on the paean to JoniMitchell ‘Joni If Only ..’ to his penchant for prose poems when describing the scene at Abbey Road inthe 70s in ‘The Lady In The Fur Coat’.
The recording captures what John says is the magic of a live performance in a controlledrecording environment though in a space such as this dripping with portent and legacy (on apersonal level for the two as well as to a worldwide community of Abbey Road fanatics) there is atangible added depth of poignancy and emotion underlying the album. For Nick Harper fans and fornew fans alike it is all here in unadorned beauty a recording that witnesses a solo artist withoutdilution or compromise nor studio trickery or production prop having a great day performing in oneof the most hallowed rooms on the planet.