Chris Lawyer

Ex-Smokie frontman offers a solo album featuring a collection of his favourite songs, interpreted in his own distinctive style. With choices like "Wake Me Up When September Ends" by Green Day or "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol, Norman shows off his sense of the contemporary Zeitgeist. But he also offers great new versions of older songs such as "I Can´t Dance" by Genesis and Mike Oldfield's "Moonlight Shadow". Touring Europe and playing festivals throughout August.

Water Sign is the fifth studio album by British singer-songwriter Chris Rea, released in 1983. The album reached #64 position on the UK album charts. "I Can Hear Your Heartbeat" was released as a single, initially peaking on the UK singles chart at #60 in 1983, while the re-recorded new version for his New Light Through Old Windows compilation album, reached #74 in 1988.

Known for his solo hits in the 1980s as well as his hits with the band Smokie in the '70s, Chris Norman is a British soft rock singer with an international following whose career spans several decades. Born on October 25, 1950, in Redcar, North Yorkshire, England, he began his musical career in the band Smokie. Originally founded in 1965, the band changed its name several times before ultimately deciding upon Smokie in the mid-'70s. Comprised of Alan Silson (lead guitar, vocals), Terry Uttley (bass, vocals), and Pete Spencer (drums), in addition to Norman (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Smokie made their album debut in 1975 with Pass It Around. Their second album, Changing All the Time (1975), broke them into the pop mainstream not only in the United Kingdom but also in parts of Western Europe, where the album's single, "If You Think You Know How to Love Me," was a Top Ten hit…

Known for his solo hits in the 1980s as well as his hits with the band Smokie in the '70s, Chris Norman is a British soft rock singer with an international following whose career spans several decades. Born on October 25, 1950, in Redcar, North Yorkshire, England, he began his musical career in the band Smokie. Originally founded in 1965, the band changed its name several times before ultimately deciding upon Smokie in the mid-'70s. Comprised of Alan Silson (lead guitar, vocals), Terry Uttley (bass, vocals), and Pete Spencer (drums), in addition to Norman (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Smokie made their album debut in 1975 with Pass It Around. Their second album, Changing All the Time (1975), broke them into the pop mainstream not only in the United Kingdom but also in parts of Western Europe, where the album's single, "If You Think You Know How to Love Me," was a Top Ten hit. Subsequent albums Midnight Cafe (1976), Bright Lights and Back Alleys (1977), and The Montreux Album (1978) were also international hits.

Chris Smither spent a fair chunk of time in the mid-2010s looking back, culminating in Still on the Levee, a two-disc set from 2014 that found the singer/songwriter revisiting songs he recorded in the past. Arriving four years later, Call Me Lucky functions as something of an answer to that aesthetic, finding the singer/songwriter living squarely in the present. He opens the album with the lively blues shuffle "The Blame's on Me," which is quickly followed by a minor-key rendition of Chuck Berry's "Maybellene," and he effectively sets the pace for the rest of the album. As Call Me Lucky rolls on – the album proper is ten tracks, but there are six additional "B-Sides" featuring alternate takes of songs on the album, plus an introspective version of the Beatles' "She Said She Said" – Smither adds some slower, gentler touches (highlighted by the lovely "By the Numbers"), but he retains this same sense of immediacy. By playing so directly and simply – the album isn't unadorned, there are additional harmonies and guitars, yet it feels like it is – Chris Smither creates a bracing, intimate record, one that feels filled with earned truths.