Stuart Landon releases 'Lonely' available from 29 June 2020
Award winning country artist Stuart Landon, has announced the release of his brand new single, Lonely. The single comes after the chart success of 'I Sinned' which topped the Amazon Country Charts and debuted at number 3 on the iTunes country chart.
Landon, who was inspired to write the song after his manager talked about her private battle with Cancer and life threatening illness. started creating the song over a year ago. He says, "I was really blown away by the song Elephant by Jason Isbell and I'm in no way comparing this song or myself as a writer to Jason or Elephant, but it shed a perspective on cancer to me which was an inspiration in parts of Lonely. Unfortunately, my manager found out that she had the disease and she had to bravely fight it. I watched first-hand how someone who was facing this horrible journey could be, in public, so brave, and adopt a what will be will be attitude"
He goes on to say, "The thing with this disease is you can’t do anything to help, you have to stand by and watch it happen, so I started thinking about what it must be like knowing it could send you to an early grave and how lonely it must be to have to live with that thought every day, and how strong and brave you must have to be. It really must be the loneliest place in the world".
Despite the difficult subject, Landon doesn't want this to be portrayed as a sympathy song and goes on to add, "Lonely is a song written from an experience as someone who has known someone, and seen someone go through the horrendous disease that is cancer. We have all known someone, lost friends and family members and been affected by this in one way or another. This is by no means a charity record, or a pity song, its written from my view as a song writer, what it must be like to experience cancer."
Stuart Landon is no stranger to us at LiveWire, and we have reviewed a number of the award winning country singer / songwriters recent releases including Is This Home, and the excellent I Sinned.
As Stuart explains in the press release above, this is an incredibly emotive song, drawing on personal experience being there and seeing how his manager has coped bravely through illness and expressing in musical form just how he thinks this must feel, and how incredibly lonely it must be for someone going through it. Stuart is an outstanding lyricist and I’ve acknowledged this before in relation to previous releases I Sinned and my personal favourite song P.S. I Loved You (check it out on Spotify – an outstanding song). The lyrics and incredibly powerful and draw you in just as they do in P.S. I Loved You, and you can almost feel how this journey and personal experience being so close to someone battling this awful disease has touched Stuart deeply, with lines such as “I keep it to myself because no one could help” and “If I could turn back all the years, I would not have wasted any tears”.
Musically Lonely starts very simply with a slow piano as Stuarts wonderful vocals join in. The track builds, first with an excellent muted steel guitar and pounding but slow bass guitar pulling the track together. Half way through the track becomes more expansive and builds to a powerful ending, with guitar and orchestral strings taking centre stage. The vocals too become more powerful before everything slides away, leaving a simple vocal line to fittingly fade away at the end, alone….. and lonely.
I have to say the first time I sat and listened to it right through, I just thought…… Wow. Nothing else…. No words would do - It grabbed me emotionally and pulled at my heartstrings. What I loved was musically it mirrors what Stuart says about the track, about it not being about sympathy, but putting you in the pace of someone going through this to feel, and experience how lonely it feels, and it does just that – brilliantly. But what is exceptional is that it also portrays the strength of character to fight it, to survive, and this comes over in the way the track builds and becomes louder, and stronger, but the simple ending vocals only, mirroring the sense and feeling of loneliness. incredibly emotive stuff.
Very different from Stuarts recent releases, and not a ‘standard’ country song, but I think this will appeal to both country fans, with it’s subtle steel guitar tone, but also to a far wider audience.
It is a genuine, powerful, emotional and very personal tale, and it is delivered exceptionally well. I loved it. Musically I can’t fault it, the structure and lyrics work exceptionally well, and it does what any great song should do…. It moves me.
So, if you want your music to actually touch you, and make you feel something, like it’s real ? Then give this a listen, a worthy winner of our second only 10 score.
Lonely is released worldwide on Monday 29th June 2020 with pre-order available now on
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/album/id1516155378?ls=!&app=itunes
For more information about Stuart and his band the Angels with Dirty Faces, check them out here:
www.facebook.com/stuartlandonandtheangelswithdirtyfaces
