Short Biography
James Reyne
James Reyne is one of Australia's most loved singer songwriters. James led the seminal Australian Crawl to the top of the Australian music scene and followed this with a platinum lined solo career, releasing 9 solo albums to date.
James hasn't kept himself entirely in the studio or at live venues; his other projects have included hosting Dig TV for ABC 2, acting and some interview/hosting for various Foxtel VH1 specials.
James recordings also feature on two Children's books (Mr Froggy Went A Courtin' and Save The Bones For Henry Jones).
In the first half of 2010 James released a special CD titled "TCB", where James recorded his renditions of many songs that Elvis made famous.
2011 will see James release his next solo recording of a collection of new songs he has written in the past year ( as yet untitled it's due out in the latter half of 2011 ) and touring around the country.
James' song-writing coupled with his idiosyncratic vocal style, has enabled James to transcend the disposability of music industry fashion and carve his place in the musical landscape of Australia.
"The man who wrote the great Reckless is an accomplished lyricist, capable of lovely detail and nuance an on this (Every Man A King) his eighth solo album, the words and imagery are as strong as his best work. And that voice just gets better."
The Age Preview Mag, Peter Wilmoth.
"It's 21 years since Australian Crawl split up and the former frontman is as quirky, smart and inventive as ever. Reyne is a delightfully eclectic performer. You never get bored by his recordings"
Sunday Herald Sun, Bryan Patterson.
"Reyne makes mature-age rock that is consistently interesting "
David Costello - Daily Telegraph.
In-depth Biography
Following the demise of the seminal Australian Crawl, lead singer James Reyne continued to chart the musical path he initiated in the last stages of his former band's career. It was through leaving his homeland that the Melbourne native found the inspirations for his debut disc. After two years of touring the world, Reyne began his solo work in London, sculpting out a sound indebted to the Crawl but with a depth, scope, and edge uniquely his own. The resultant cinematic James Reyne, released in Australia in 1987, was a powerhouse of an album, a claim-staking arrival cry of a new voice in popular music -- one that would touch down in rock, country, folk, outback, poetic, and rootsy territory, while still managing to transcend them all. The album produced three Australian Top Ten hits and afforded Reyne a fanatical following culminating in a dynamic tour with Tina Turner. Ironically, it was only after this jaunt with Turner that Reyne's album was released (to minimal response) in America nearly two years after its initial appearance.
Working with frequent collaborator Simon Hussey, Reyne's sophomore effort echoed the success of its predecessor in Australia, yet slipped through the cracks nearly everywhere else. Hard Reyne produced several more chart-topping singles and spawned another sellout Aussie tour, but was never released overseas. As a result, Reyne chose to extend his collaborations for his third album to include Jim Vallance (Bryan Adams' longtime producer) and Louisiana maestro Tony Joe White. The resultant Electric Digger Dandy (released in America as Any Day Above Ground) was a wildly original variation on Reyne's first two albums. While still maintaining the urgent and edgy rock feel of James Reyne, the lyrics became significantly darker and even more cryptic ("Dust on the bible/The man who waits behind your door/You can't feel/You can't score/Breathing on his face to make him real" from "Take a Giant Step"). A startlingly oddball collection, Electric Digger Dandy was capped by Reyne's re-do of the Australian Crawl classic "Reckless," as if reminding his fans that these wildly eclectic works came from the same source as those old Crawl beach ditties (having much the same effect as Brian Wilson's 1988 solo album).
After another tour that established Reyne as one of the most important and groundbreaking Australian artists past or present, the bush poet laureate further shattered convention by collaborating with offbeat country artist James Blundell on a wacky re-do of the Dingoes' "Way Out West" for Blundell's This Road album. The charity single for the National Farmer's Federation lodged at the top of the charts for a considerable time, and providing significant relief for a period of major droughts.
After a two-year hiatus and a major-label change, Reyne returned to the solid song craftsmanship of his solo debut for The Whiff of Bedlam, in many ways his strongest album to date. Produced by radio-friendly Stuart Levine, this epic collection boasts some of Reyne's finest writing, his edginess worked into the fabric of the songs rather than racing around them. Bookended by hit singles "Red Light Avenue" and "Day in the Sun," Whiff also contains a beautifully tragic rendition of Steely Dan's "Only a Fool Would Say That." But the highlight of this song cycle is the haunting single, "It's Only Natural," which laces an unforgettably hook-laden melody around bizarro lyrics like "Anglo-Reptilian/Wrist-watch radio titters/She waltzes her way through the aerodrome/Powdering conversation with pigeon-Indo/She catches her plane to petty, sun-white, two-tone heaven", and actually pulls it off! The Whiff of Bedlam is an astonishing album, the culmination of Reyne's oddball journey from quirky popsmith to eclectic experimentalist to mature balladeer, while opening the door to an even more interesting and unpredictable future. As Reyne himself sums up his aesthetic (in Whiff's "No Secrets"): "I've seen all these faces/Between the mountains and the beach/Looking out for happiness/Out of reach/Cars and women/Running rich and fast/Driving down the freeway/This fun it won't last...Gonna cross that bridge." And we can only wait till he shows us what he finds on the other side. ~ Tomas Mureika, Rovi
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