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DJ Supply

Title - Shed Sessions, Volumes One & Two
Artist - Chantel McGregor

For those not in the know, critically acclaimed Blues-rock guitarist Chantel McGregor has just released two new albums titled The Shed Sessions, Volumes One & Two.

Indeed, the first volume (acoustic) came out first and the second volume (electric) was just released this past week.

Chantel McGregor has been performing live gigs since the age of 12, schooled at a music college and achieved a First Class Honours Degree in Popular Music.

Along with her current band members, Colin Sutton on bass and Thom Gardner on drums, they form an awesome power trio playing an eclectic mix of blues based tunes, composed by Chantel, ranging from traditional blues numbers complimented perfectly by the purity of her singing voice, to a much more raunchy blues rock style.

And boy, can that girl play guitar! With several complicated solos she proved that she can shred with the best of them as her and her guitar became one.

Shed Sessions, Volume One:
1. Needle and the Damage Done
2. Morning Song
3. Sledgehammer
4. Angel From Montgomery
5. Gold Dust Woman
6. Fire and Rain
7. Can’t Find My Way Home
8. Love Has No Pride
9. Harvest Moon
10. Landslide
11. Voodoo Chile
12. I Can’t Make You Love Me
13. Nothing Else Matters

The first acoustic volume features all cover versions with tracks from a scattering of bands, genres and eras such as Stevie Nicks, Peter Gabriel, Steve Winwood, Neil Young and even Metallica.

Trying to not only recreate each well known song, but moreover make each track her own, the album opens on the gentle bounce of both Needle and the Damage Done (Neil Young) and Morning Song (Jewel) and follows those up with one of my own personal favorites, a quite magnificently resculptured Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel), a merciful Angel From Montgomery (John Prine) and then we get a reined Gold Dust Woman (Fleetwood Mac) and an ornamented rendition of Fire and Rain (James Taylor).

Next up is a rather beautifully arrayed Can’t Find My Way Home (Blind Faith), a quietly heartfelt Love Has No Pride (Bonnie Raitt), a tender era reminisce within Harvest Moon (Neil Young), another stand out within the silky gauze of Landslide (Fleetwood Mac), a forthright and determined vocal and guitar-imbibed Voodoo Chile (Jimi Hendrix), the album rounding out on the quietly impassioned I Can’t Make You Love Me (Bonnie Raitt), closing on her precisely-sculptured, substantially delicate, yet wholeheartedly McGregor-infused Nothing Else Matters (Metallica).

Shed Sessions, Volume Two:
1. Creep
2. Foolish Games
3. Drive Home
4. Winter
5. Walk On Land
6. Uninvited
7. Summertime
8. April
9. River
10. The Raven That Refused To Sing

The second electric volume is a very eclectic offering and whilst it also features covers of such artists as Jewel, Radiohead, Joni Mitchell and Tori Amos, it also comes complete with two reworkings of McGregor’s own songs.

Opening on the dulcet gossamer of Creep (Radiohead) and the gently rhythmic Foolish Games (Jewel), those are backed seamlessly by the lush orchestrations of Drive Home (Steven Wilson), her ornate take of Winter (Tori Amos), and then we get a slyly altered version of her own Walk On Land.

A quite stunning, veritably ethereal Uninvited (Alanis Morissette) is up next and is followed by the low key Summertime (Ella Fitzgerald), a wistfully expressive, newly-determined track of her own, April, the album rounding out on the expressive River (Joni Mitchell), closing on her stoic, unique take on Steve Wilson’s The Raven That Refused To Sing.

March 2020, the world changed and the everyday things that we normally did became a dream, the world went into lockdown, the pause button on life was hit, and we stayed at home, Chantel explains.

So, I was sat there one night in my shed thinking to myself What can I do to make lockdown seem a little bit brighter? After a while it came to me, Why not do a live stream so that I could stay in touch and connect with my lovely fans, they could connect with each other, and we all have a little bit of fun and music during a pretty gloomy time?

At the time, I didn’t know that it would become a weekly thing, but the first session was so much fun that I thought I’ll do another one the following week, and then the week after that, and it became a weekly gig, The Shed Sessions!

5pm every Saturday was the hour every week where I could perform my music, have a bit of banter and catch up with friends on the live stream. An hour of music and humour to remind everyone that one day things will be fun again and live music will still be there!

A lot of people asked if I would record an album of the sessions, so I started thinking about what to record. There were so many songs to choose from!

At the start of lockdown, I was living in the North of England, so the sessions were just acoustic guitar and vocals, but when the government said you could move around more freely, I moved to the South of England and started collaborating with Jamie Brooks on keyboards, which meant that I could feature my electric guitar and a bit more improvisation.

Because lockdown was still restricting studios being open, both albums were recorded at home, using a wardrobe as a vocal booth and then sent off to Wayne Proctor to mix and master.

The two albums are incredibly different, so it seemed appropriate to do two albums, one acoustic and one electric; Volumes One and Two.

Official Purchase Links

Official Website

Chantel McGregor @ Facebook

Chantel McGregor @ Twitter

Chantel McGregor @ Instagram

Chantel McGregor @ YouTube





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