Simon Hale talks to singer-songwriter Nell Bryden.
The title track of Nell Bryden’s latest album Wayfarer tells the tale of a footloose wanderer who has finally come home to roost.
It also mirrors the life of this gifted American singer-songwriter who will be playing Birmingham’s O2 Institute on Tuesday in support of her new single Wolves taken from the 13-track recording.
The upbeat ballad is the jazz, blues and pop diva’s first duet since Sirens, her inspirational song about 9/11 covered by Cher, and features Mercury nominated singer-songwriter Tom McRae sharing vocals.
Having toured the world for years with only her guitar for company, Nell’s musical career has been clouded by traumatic events ever since her parents split when she was five. She was in Manhattan for 9/11 and New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck, and ran out of money while recording her debut album, saved only by selling a painting she found in her father’s attic.
Four years ago the stress of making it in the music industry caused her to lose all her hair, but despite the anxiety this brought she has learned to feel comfortable with herself.
“I saw myself as a troubadour following the likes of Carole King, but a lifestyle that included going from man to man was not something that appealed to me,” she said over the phone from London.
“It made me stop and think what I really wanted and that was to continue to enjoy the rock and roll lifestyle but also to have a family. Fortunately I now have both which is all that matters.”
Dividing her time between homes in New York City and London, Nell married an Englishman Alistair in the Cotswolds last year and the couple celebrated the birth of their daughter Tala in December.
“This will be my first tour as a mom and my mother is flying over from the States to look after the baby. Tala was born in London and already has two passports,” she added proudly.
Nell lived with her mother Jane Bryden, a classical soprano, after her parents (her father Lewis Bryden is an artist) broke up and was destined for an opera career until she heard Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.
She found the time to play regular gigs at Boston’s folk and rock clubs while completing an English degree at the city’s prestigious Wellesley College – and the rest is history.
With soaring vocals reminiscent of Annie Lennox and Dusty Springfield, Nell’s singles such as All You Had and Waves have been aired on BBC Radio 2 and she has also appeared at BBC Proms in the Park.
Her songs on the Wayfarer album are catchy and seductively upbeat, reflecting as she said the newfound happiness in her domestic life: “Before, there was a lot of heartache, cry in your beer stuff that needed pedal steel all over the place, but I don’t feel that now.”
No stranger to Birmingham (she has played the Hare & Hounds in King’s Heath and the National Indoor Arena) Nell will be accompanied on stage at the Institute by her band of Ali Petrie, Lorne Ashley and James Bernardis on keyboards, bass guitar and drums respectively.
Nell herself will be singing with her trademark Gibson acoustic guitar but also making her performance debut on electric guitar with her beautiful vintage 1952 Fender Esquire. She will be supported by fellow singer-songwriter Judith Owen along with Leland Sklar, who played The Glee Club earlier this year.
Nell said she and Judith met at a writing retreat and hit it off to the point where they decided to tour together. They will be singing two duets in Birmingham on a night that Nell promises will be up tempo.
There are two other things that Nell has promised herself when she gets to Birmingham: “I want to check out the shopping at Grand Central and go out for a curry. If only we had a Balti belt in London.”
Nell Bryden will be performing in concert at The Institute, Birmingham on Tuesday, November 10 from 7pm. Tickets priced at £14.50 are available from www.ticketmaster.co.uk