BARBARA DICKSON & RAB NOAKES – Reunited EP released on 14th April

BabRabTo accompany their 2014 tour Barbara Dickson and Rab Noakes have combined their voices to record an EP.

Barbara and Rab have known one another for nearly fifty years and the songs recorded represent many areas they’ve explored together in that time.

They met in the mid-’60s in Edinburgh. The place was the Foresthill Bar, aka Sandy Bell’s. The pub was the known hang-out for anyone interested in folksong and music. They both were, each having arrived there by a similar route. They are both from Fife, born there in 1947, and raised in the kind of quality public-housing that was available then. 

The airwaves of the 1950s pre, during and post-rock’n’roll were full of great songs. All of this impressed Barbara and Rab, particularly the records of the Everly Brothers.

On into the 1960s and the emergence of the Beatles and then Bob Dylan bounced each of them into an appreciation of folksongs. That rich mixture of songs from limitless sources appealed to them, and instilled in them an instinct for songs of interest wherever they’re from.

As an example, later in their lives they found they each had separate seminal experiences with the song ‘Buttons and Bows’. A version of this appears on Rab’s forthcoming I’m Walkin’ Here CD, sung by them both.

They have sung together often over the intervening years and, in 2013, decided to put together a tour with their two voices, two guitars and two rich experiences for a night of quality songs and performance.

Back to the EP, which was recorded in one afternoon in John Cavanagh’s Muirend ganghut studio. It captures the spirit, and the richness, of two people’s unique experiences in the ever-interesting world of the popular song.

Tracklisting:

Do right woman
(Don’t say) Money doesn’t matter
The same sky
Que sera sera
Something’s wrong
Sleepless nights

Artists’ websites:

www.barbaradickson.net

www.rabnoakes.com