The young white male singer songwriter has taken a bit of a bashing in certain quarters over the last year or so. After all, it’s easy for cynics to sneer at commercial success so the likes of Rag ‘N’ Bone Man and Ed Sheeran are always going to be obvious targets. Add into that the growing ongoing and still developing conversation around white male privilege and you can start to get a feel for why being that bloke with an acoustic guitar might not enamour you with the music press quite as much as it used to.
And although on this blog I’ve featured way more singers that are women than men over the last few years, and in terms of guys with acoustic guitars only a small handful, today I am introducing a new male acoustic singer songwriter.
Before you snore off with the dullness of it all, let’s all just remember that sometimes when something has become deeply unfashionable it’s easy to dismiss it without giving it the attention it deserves; and Mindless Town, the debut single from Roman Lewis warrants at least five minutes and sixteen seconds of your time. A subtle slow-burner that slowly fires up from the embers it displays a talent that is already well beyond being third of five in a typical open mic night at the local boozer - which is just as well as he’s only 17, so he wouldn’t even get served.
A little bit of digging on his Facebook shows that Roman (who has the name to match his flowing locks) is from London and has been doing music for some time. He even appeared as Charlie Simpson in What I Go To School For, The Busted Musical at the Theatre Royal, Brighton and this song has been kicking around for a while now. But now it’s getting a proper release via AWAL/Kobal and was produced and mixed by Catherine Marks (The Big Moon, The Amazons, Manchester Orchestra). It's an impressive and striking debut. Forget the white male singer songwriter tag and keep your mind open for Mindless Town.
Roman Lewis - Mindless Town
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