06 Oct Red Sky July release new single from forthcoming 2025 album
Red Sky July release the second single, ‘Stones and Brambles’, from their upcoming, fourth album (due for release in February 2025). A gentle love song over a finger-picking guitar arpeggio, ‘Stones and Brambles’ is deeply personal, written by Shelly Poole in the aftermath of guitarist – and her husband – Ally McErlaine’s brain haemorrhage.
“This is a song originally written on a little holiday in the Highlands. Travelling to Scotland was quite a feat and Ally couldn’t walk properly but we were determined to try to do what we loved, including being outside and enjoying nature. Everything, even simple things like walking over stones and brambles, was a disaster waiting to happen but I needed to pretend we were ok for a while. It’s a happy heartfelt lyric but it somehow feels a bit sad.” says Shelly.
Against the odds, and all medical predictions, Ally made a full recovery, returning to tour with Texas and forming Red Sky July with Shelly as a ‘soul food’ side-project. Following the release of their acclaimed music, the project spiralled and their achievements were recognised at the Scottish Music Awards where they were presented with a prestigious Tartan Clef Award. Red Sky July have toured extensively including sets at Glastonbury, Isle of Wight, T in the Park and C2C: Country to Country and appeared as special guests of the likes of Sheryl Crow, Steve Earle, 10CC, Tom Jones and Jools Holland.
Now 15 years since the band formed and eight since their last, lauded album, Red Sky July have returned with a folkier fresh direction since the arrival of singer Haley Glennie-Smith, known for her work on soundtracks including Stephen Woolley’s Stoned, Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There and Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity and as the solo vocalist of Planet Earth in Concert.
‘Misty Morning’, the first single from the new album, conjured a pastoral landscape bathed in the hazy rays of a summer dawn, its textures, melody and sensual harmonies recalling The Staves, the age-old alchemy of Stevie Nicks and the magical mysticism of Cocteau Twins.
I just think they’re wonderful – Baylen Leonard, Absolute Radio Country
Just exquisite! – Bernie Keith, BBC Radio Nottinghamshire
“Our aim was to shake up the perception of what folk music means,” says Shelly. “When recording the new album we challenged the instrumentation involved in the folk and Americana genres and used a lot of delays and electronic drones to create a much more cinematic sound. We also layered up some ‘found sound’ that we recorded in Scotland, Ireland, America, Spain and everywhere else on our travels. We made synth drones out of them, which became the bedrock of the album, sound-wise.”
Having first found global fame in the ‘90s with her sister in Alisha’s Attic – the platinum-sellers toured with INXS and Bon Jovi and were mainstays of the Lilith Fair movement promoting women in pop – Shelly went on to work with Janet Jackson, Westlife, Mark Ronson and Massive Attack. She is one of Britan’s most in-demand songwriters for other artists as well as film and TV soundtracks.
Red Sky July’s first three albums were fronted by Charity Hair, whose Southern States twang and fiddle playing gave the group a distinct country sound. When she left pre-pandemic to return to the States, Shelly looked up her old friend Haley and discovered that she lived just up the road.
“I hadn’t seen her in over a decade, but I still had her number and, incredibly, it still worked,” laughs Shelly. “She could have been anywhere in the world, but she was living ten minutes from us in North London. We met up the same day and she agreed to join the band. It couldn’t have been more serendipitous.”
What appeared to be easy took a tricky turn when the trio scrapped their first album and then the pandemic hit. “Actually we scrapped two albums,” says Ally. “The second written in lockdown. I think we were trying too hard. I had been due out on Texas’ 30th anniversary tour, but twice it was cancelled. Everything was up in the air and perhaps we felt under pressure to write.”
Third time around, things flowed. “Once we decided to have no rules and no boundaries, we found our new sound,” says Shelly. “Ally and I are so used to working to strict remits on soundtracks and adverts. We had to ditch that mentality and just go with our guts.
“What we hit on as a trio feels so special. There are bits of all our backgrounds, melded together, but with more electronics than we’ve used in the past. It’s organic and different, and it sums up our past few years. It’s been a long time coming, but worth the wait.”
