Georgia Ruth returns with wonderful and wide-screen new track ‘Driving Dreams’ , gently lapping guitars, bouncing percussion, sighing horns and wrapped in elegantly drawn string arrangements. Ruth’s vocals are gorgeously quivering in a upper register, ripe with a longing for the open road and all the escape, freedom and unknown it represents, and with affectionate echoes of the 60s Americana of Glen Campbell and the sensitive orchestral suites of Serge Gainsbourg or Francoise Hardy records.
It comes with a bright video where Georgia is working as a waitress dreaming of escape, that nods towards Thelma and Louise, it was filmed at Georgie’s Diner in Pyle, shot and edited by Ren Faulkner for On Par Productions.
It’s lifted from her new album Cool Head, co-produced with long-time collaborator, Iwan Morgan. Georgia explains the inspiration behind the track: “If the whole album is imagined as a drive through the night into morning, then this is the theme song. Having spent most of my adult life trying (and failing) to drive, this song is a culmination of the fantasy and fears presented by the open road. I wanted it to sound completely wide-screen, with a little nod to Glen Campbell – my eldest son’s favourite singer! (I should point out that I’m hoping to have passed my test by the time the album is released.)”
Georgia Ruth is a musician from Aberystwyth, Wales. Using folk influences to create a truly unique sound, her debut album, ‘Week of Pines’, won the Welsh Music Prize in 2013 and was nominated for two BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Georgia collaborated with Manic Street Preachers before going on to release two more critically acclaimed albums (‘Fossil Scale’, ‘Mai’) and two EPs (‘Mai: 2’, ‘Kingfisher’).
2024 sees the release of Georgia’s fourth studio album, Cool Head. Written in the year after her husband and collaborator was taken seriously ill, Georgia describes the album as a long drive through night into morning. “Cool Head,” a phrase her dad would always use to urge calm thinking, presents a candid and affecting collection of songs, spanning wide-open Americana to 60s-influenced folk ballads.
Recorded in Sain studios, near Caernarfon, the album features contributions by Iwan Huws (Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog), Stephen Black (Sweet Baboo), Gwion Llewelyn (Aldous Harding), and Rhodri Brooks (Melin Melyn). With Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci stalwart Euros Childs adding his unmistakable vocals to a couple of songs, this is a truly Welsh affair. It also features string arrangements by Gruff Ab Arwel, whose ear for melody brings a new dimension to the songs. These are performed by Angharad Davies, Angharad Jenkins and Patrick Rimes.
‘Driving Dreams’ is out this Friday 15th March via Bubblewrap Collective.
