Garforth and Myers S/T review

Garforth and Myers

Garforth and Myers

Self Release

Rory Garforth and Adam Myers are musicians from Barnsley, Yorkshire, England. An area not always noted for its beauty or subtlety; but Garforth and Myers bring forth delicate acoustic songs filled with dark shimmer and wonder that take you to another world.

Much like the atmospheric black and white photos of twisted trees and faint fuzzy figures found on the artwork, the ten songs on this collection create lush soundscapes of secrets, yearning and of time passed.

Bonfires, the opening track talks of ‘Shadows’ and ‘Gallows up on the hill’. Two main acoustic guitars tangle very technically to create a lovely sound. The addition of stand up bass, subtle percussion, strings and female backing from Emma Johnstone complete the Fleet Foxes feel on this record.

Detailed finger picking guitar bubbles under most tracks washing the songs along, with another more simple melodic line alongside.  The repeated chorus’ on Bonfires and ‘left, gone and past’ on closing track Tonight are coloured in with beautiful backing vocals and strings that are both lush and lonely. 

Throughout, both Garforth and Myers share vocal duties, Garforth stands out on Mirrors with a pin drop opening. These songs have clearly been put together with great care and attention and the production is immaculate.

Rhythm is provided by the Andy Seward/Keith Angel collective, who also produce, and the songs with the electric guitar and Hammond organ are more poppy. Ghost Writer would be their cross over hit. With an almost Arctic’s (Don’t sit down...) and Dylanesque style quirky lyrics, this is the lightest song and is my personal favourite on here.

Lonely and haunting - English Folk at its most delicate and refined- Garforth and Myers are scarily good musicians armed with a bank of well crafted songs we can all feel something to.  Self released and recorded down the road at WaveLength Studios, this is a proper local outfit to be proud of.

Paul Bateson