Alex Kumar - Alex Kumar
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| Alex Kumar - Alex Kumar |
Well here's a conundrum. Alex
Kumar looks like a young Hollywood film star, sounds like weathered Blues
singer and comes from just outside the city of Exeter, UK. More confusingly, he
might be an acoustic singer-songwriter but he's not churning out over-earnest,
romantic tripe that sounds like a Blue song without the high stools. No, what
young Alex is doing is creating beautifully fragile Blues Folk songs with
delicate finger picking and vocals that exist just on the divide between
tuneful and pure emotion. Kicking off with the wistful '1963 [Radio Edit]'
wherein Alex sings of his regret that he can't jam with Dylan in his prime and
live during those times of enormous change - let's face it, we've all had that
thought after watching a particularly good music documentary right? Now 'St.
James Infirmary Blues' might not be the catchiest title in the world but this
is where Kumar starts to really flex his Blues muscles and you can just picture
sat on a stoop, hat pulled low and beaten up guitar being twanged across his
dusty knees.
Kumar's vocals are truly unique
and this is particularly evident on 'I Just Received The News' and the
strangely uplifting 'Love (Or The Next Best Thing)' as he strains and croons
but always manages to hold on to the melody with wavering in a way Frank Turner
never quite achieves. There is a real wild west meets Brother & Bones feel
to 'If I Went Blind' while 'Long Time Man (Feel Bad)' is a ballad that the you
could hear coming out of a saloon bar in a lonely, debt ridden mining town
somewhere in the old mid west. The love song that is 'Pretty Peggy-O' drifts
weightlessly through the air like a dandelion on a summer's breeze but then 'Me
And The Devil' has more of a swagger and glint about it as Kumar channels the
Blues so perfectly you would never guess this guy lives in rural Devon. The
album finishes up with a more lengthy version of '1963' but this is really only
the sprinkles on the cherry on the icing on the cake which young Alex has
already baked. I urge you to check this kid out and if you catch him live then
check his ID before you buy him a whisky - he looks impossibly young.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/AlexKumarMusic?fref=ts /