Glenn Williams - MUSIC WRITER IN JAPAN - It's Not The Same Anymore
One of the things you always get from Mr. Digance, is a set of songs that are at one with his audience. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it’s guaranteed so whilst the title of this album echoes the sentiment in some of the lyrics on this album, rest assured that he is still at the top of his game, still the same. Loaded with nostalgia, modern observations and people of the past, lyrically, there is no one better at telling a story and he has a knack of creating a set of chords that married with his marvellous picking, emphasizes the melody and the subject. It’s no wonder he is in such high demand on the biggest stages around Britain.
Richard’s forty-fifth album (‽) starts with him lamenting how the English shops have changed from when he was young. It’s a set of lyrics anyone from England over sixty years old can relate to and empathise with. The same is true of the humorous I Can't Put My Socks On Anymore and the closing We Were Rebels, both resonate with his audience because that’s exactly how they are and were. Richard connects because he remembers and can write how things were. Nowhere is this more remarkable than in Tommy Cooper, a song about England’s eminent comedian who collapsed from a heart attack on stage, live on national television. Twelve million people watched the show that night and any one of us that watched the show can recall every second through Richard’s tribute.
There’s no massive production. In the places where he has added something other than his voice and guitar, it is a simple stroke to the canvas with impact, Florence And The Battlefield Angels being the perfect example. It starts with the recollection of a Crimean war soldier, the misery, pain and torment they all went through until Florence Nightingale and her nurses arrived. Richard then pulls us into today with a roll call of Florence Nightingales thirty-eight nurses as battle sounds gradually increase behind. Then we go back to the soldier and finally back to Richard who codas the song with a link to today’s nurses and the recent pandemic. It’s a very moving piece.
There’s no one quite like Richard Digance. A singer song writer who can make you smile, cry, recollect, laugh and learn all in one album and these thirteen songs have all of that and more and the best thing is that after you’ve heard this one and really enjoyed it, there are forty-four more for you to get stuck into.
Track List
It's Not The Same Anymore
The Planets Are In Line Tonight
Absolutely Anything
After Lockdown
If You Want
Doris Digance The Artist
I Can't Put My Socks On Anymore
Charlie And His White Caravan
Tommy Cooper
Say You're Sorry
The Unknown Soldier
Florence And The Battlefield Angels
We Were Rebels