Shipcote & Friends POP PICKERS

Shipcote & Friends
Pop Pickers
Low Fella Records

Songs That Will Take You on a Lovely Summer’s Evening Trip Somewhere Wonderful

W know Shipcote was a member of a couple of Martin G Stephenson’s various incarnations many years ago; but why it’s taken them so long to get together in this format I will never know…….. it just makes complete sense.
Don’t get me wrong; this is still very much a Shipcote solo album; but via his role as Producer/Engineer and accompanying guitar/ukulele/steel drum/bass and backing vocals; the Bard of Brady Square’s ‘stamp’ is very much all over this album.
Not normally the most prolific of recording artists, this is Shipcote’s second release of 2021 ….. and; as he has nervously told me several times ……. a bit different from anything he’s done before ….. and he’s done a lot!
That said, as soon as you hear Shippy’s warm and melancholic tones on the sad opening track Lonely Nights you know you are on safe ground; but the gentle Caribbean-lite guitar play, shakers and MG Stephenson in the background; make for a delightful few minutes; and not for the last time either.
While Shipcote’s albums are never completely ‘solo’ ….. he always brings his friends along to flesh out his songs; but POP PICKERS actually has something of a ‘band’ feel to it; none less so than on I’ve Got Faith In You, which is actually a duet with Gem Andrews and later the tragic heartbreakers, What’s Love and from the pen of another local lad; Nev Clay’s haunting Hurting You.
I’ve known Shipcote for many years now and pretty much know he is one half of a strong, long and loving partnership …… so it never ceases to amaze me where he drags songs like What’s Love and Where’s It All Gone from; but that’s why he’s an acclaimed songwriter and I write reviews I suppose.
With that in mind; the quaint ukulele fronted Bad Situation really does sum up the nightmare we’ve all lived through in the last year or so, with a myriad of lockdowns and no live gigs to speak of, and how it affected such a ‘people person’ as what Shipcote is…. oh; the song will still make you smile btw.
While ‘different’ from previous albums in as much as the overall ‘sound’ is a little more commercial and contemporary than on previous records; there are actually less surprises here than the singer had frightened me with; as the actual ‘surprises’ are very good to the extreme; which brings me to the runners and riders for the accolade of Favourite Song ….. with all three being beautifully imaginative stories that have been turned into even more beautiful songs at the hands of Shipcote and Stephenson; purveyors of Fine Roots Music.
If you heard St. Cecilia on the wireless you would immediately stop what you were doing; kick back and let Shipcote and his Highland Mariachi Band just waft over you like a Border breeze; but eventually Shipcote’s mighty fine prose would unravel and you will be left open mouthed; and as he sings; Cecilia would make a fine name for a daughter; and it did.
Oddly enough on an album by a lauded singer-songwriter; the instrumental; Saltwell Stroll (Part II) is as archetypal a track on a Shipcote album as I think I’ve ever heard ….. it’s charm personified.
Then there is Amy …… phew ….. phwoar …… gulp ….. wipes away a tear.
Man oh man!
Where did this come from?
It won’t take Vera or Columbo two minutes to work out that the Amy of the title is Ms Winehouse; and this love song to the memory of the tragic Diva is as timely as it is welcome; and IMHO one of Shipcote’s finest songs ever …… and a song that deserves airplay across the English speaking world.
I’m not going to delve any deeper into the song; that’s a treat for you when you buy the album ….. but by far and away my Favourite Song here.
The warmth and love incorporated into all of these songs takes you on a lovely Summer’s evening trip to somewhere wonderful; well away from the trials and tribulations that face us in everyday life that is 2021.

Released September 3rd 2021
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