Jack Badcock - Too Many Things
Singer and guitarist, Jack Badcock has toured extensively around the world, predominantly as frontman and founding member of his world-folk band Dallahan.
Raised in Kilkenny, Ireland and later Yorkshire, England, splitting his first eighteen years between the two, before moving to Scotland as a teenager, immersing himself in it’s traditional music scene, where he has lived since 2011.
In Edinburgh, he formed a partnership with multi-instrumentalist Ciaran Ryan, initially cutting their teeth playing traditional music at pub gigs in the city, before going on to tour in the the UK and Europe. The duo would go on to form Dallahan in 2013, which rapidly grew on the international folk circuits.
After releasing three albums and numerous tours in the UK, North America and Europe with Dallahan, the time now seems right for Jack Badcock to release his first solo track Too Many Things today, Friday 23 October.
Too Many Things cites inspiration from musicians on the Americana scene such as Sarah Jarosz and Darrell Scott, as well assinger-songwriters on the Scottish and Irish folk scene such as Kris Drever and David Keenan.
On his inspirations behind Too Many Things, Jack said:
This song is an honest and I think relatable reflection on the duality of one’s own personality. It’s observing that within us there is a more dysfunctional version of ourselves, referred to in the song as “that fella”. This conflicting entity sometimes shows itself when we’re unhappy, irritable or simply when the sun goes down and influences our behaviour in ways that are less than constructive, such as overindulging in alcohol.
The line within the song that reads “My best friend, my lover, my muse and my idol” is relating to the love in our life that keeps “that fella” at bay. The individuals who can see through the duality and love you for who you fundamentally are. The people that you can always rely on to see you through.
Too Many Things is a great crossover songs, a little bit of folk, a little bit of contemporary and they gel extremely well in this debut solo release for Jack Badcock.
The track has a great guitar melody which catches your ear and makes you want to give it a listen and the strong vocal performance is nailed on.
It tells the story guess of listening to that inner voice in your head and knowing which is real and which is not wonderfully outlined in the opening line “there’s a fella that walks in my shadow I think or it might be me walking in his”.
I love the sing a long chorus of “there’s too many things I don’t need in my pocket, there’s too many things on my mind and the only end to this that I have in sight is the bottom of this glass of wine”.
The acknowledgement of knowing who to listen to is realised with the words “not all prisons have walls, some are just skin and bone and it seems after all that’s where he’s most at home, my lover and idol have far more to say than that fella could ever teach me in a day” showing that is more important to listen to the positive voices around you than those inside your head looking to create a negative vibe.
Too Many Things is a great debut release with Jack’s melodic style and well crafted lyrics and has certainly set the bar high for what looks like will be a very promising solo career.
Give Too Many Things a stream now:
https://open.spotify.com/album/7dbeMl3i8jDl66AjdUH4yR?si=SAbzEisDTzyNHCeqE7JXFA
Jack Badcock can be followed on Facebook, Instagram and Spotify:
https://www.facebook.com/jackkarlbadcock
https://instagram.com/jackbadcockmusic?igshid=1xw5zaiopoguh
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5ZEC5eIFq5kRQGFTRj5S1t?si=63oDtM1SS4-SVjXAxFkQzA
