Thomas Ford plays National steel guitar, Harmony & Eastwood Airline electric guitars, blues harp and all vocals Vince Lee (lead guitar, lap steel, banjolele & backing vocals) Al Wallis (bass) Becca Langsford (lead vocals & backing vocals) Tim Langsford (drums) Patrick James Pearson (fiddle, piano) Simon Dobson (Trumpet) Colin Morice (saxophone)
THOMAS FORD
Thomas Ford (b. Simon Thomas Langsford, 4 July 1985) Is a talented young blues musician based in the South West of England. Thomas has been busy playing shows around the UK since early 2008 as a hard-hitting one-man blues band. He sings and plays National steel guitar, blows rack harmonica and stomps on a tambourine strapped to a suitcase! He was Influenced from a young age by his father, Ian Langsford – founder member of legendary Plymouth blues band ‘The Legal Eagles', Being raised in a musical family with strong links to the blues has certainly rubbed off on him, as anyone who has witnessed his energetic live shows will tell you!
DEBUT ALBUM – SEPARATION STREET
Thomas Ford’s outstanding debut album ‘Separation Street’ was released in May 2009. The disc features World-class performances from Tom’s sister Becca Langsford on vocals and his brother Tim Langsford on drums. Other members include Vince Lee (guitar, lapsteel, ukulele, vocals) and Al Wallis (bass) from the internationally acclaimed blues & roots band - The Wildcards. Thomas wrote the majority of the tunes on the album including the title track ‘Separation Street’. This is an impressive debut from a young blues musician who proves himself to be a thoughtful, mature songwriter with a dark humour attached to every line he sings. His music has a timeless simplicity that will leave these tunes swimming around your head for days!
The Evening Herald' article on Thomas Ford
"As a 23-year-old middle class white boy, he's the complete antithesis of what you'd expect from a quality blues singer/guitarist and harp player - but Thomas Ford is just such an artiste.
Word of his fine performances in local bars is spreading like wildfire and when he comes personally recommended by our very own world-class guitarist Vince Lee, then you know there's something pretty special going on.
Now a Plymouth-based solo artist and uni student, about to unleash his almost-completed debut album on an unsuspecting public, his first appearances happened in his home town of Launceston where for a while he was frontman of the hugely popular jazz/pop ensemble Men of Splendor.
"In a small town like Launceston musicians naturally come together" says Thomas. "These guys were amazing musicians and we were fortunate that we were all playing the right instruments to make up a band."
"I was pushed into being frontman, which never sat particularly well with me and I found that the poppy funk we were doing wasn't really my thing"
When the band split 18 months ago the first thing he did was acquire a dobro steel guitar to follow his blues instincts.
Having grown up in a household which oozed blues music - his dad Ian Langsford was harp player with Seventies/Eighties blues band the Legal Eagles - it seemed like the natural thing to do.
Thomas also started on harmonica: "I don't ever remember learning to play the harmonica; there were just so many lying around the house, it just sort of happened - it was almost an organic process."
"You always start with your parents' record collection, don't you, and through that I got into Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal, then Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters and later Delta bluesmen Sun House, Leadbelly etcetera."
Aged 15, he picked up the guitar "because there was no one around in this part of Cornwall to play with, so I had to learn by myself" and made up for lost time by locking himself in his room, practising round the clock and writing songs.
"What bothers me a bit about playing blues is that it's rooted in hardship and struggle - OK, everyone feels low now and again, but being white and middle-class you can't begin to empathise. With the songs I write the music is blues-influenced, but all the lyrics are about situations we all find ourselves in - whether lonely, all right or whatever."
"The lyrics are quite ambiguous, and often the title - I Wouldn't Mind Dying, for example - makes a bolder statement than the lyrics themselves."
He's not ashamed to admit that the subject matter often revolves around girls, such as Separation Street, the title track of the forthcoming album about a girl he lived with in Melbourne: "After I came home I never got round to seeing her again."
We shouldn't have to wait too long to hear the debut album, which is being made with the help of producer brother Tim and features all manner of guest musos including former members of Men of Splendor, sister Becca on backing vocals plus Vince Lee and Al Wallis."
- Claire Robinson, Evening Herald, Plymouth, UK
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Attila Horváth
Posted 586 days ago
"Thomas Ford & The Dirty Harmonys is another name which is worth to remember. I'm sure we will hear a lot about them in the future and hopefully their next album which will be published by a serious publisher, will get to all the blues fans of the world." (Blues van - www.bluesvan.hu)
Marcel
Posted 895 days ago
Great CD, a new fan from Holland!
<1>
1.Richmanpoormanbeggarmanthief
2. I Wouldn't Mind Dying (But I Have To Go Myself)
3. Wandering Eagle
4. Hurt Like This
5. You Can't Make Nobody Love You
6. (It's A Mean Old World For A) Drunken Hearted Man
7. Separation Street
8. Love In Vain
9. There Comes A Time
10. Rest In Pieces
11. Human After All
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