Minister marks his 77th birthday with new album release
APRESBYTERIAN minister from Runcorn has celebrated his 77th birthday this week by doing something a out of the ordinary – releasing a country album.
Colin Gordon-Farleigh released Friends And Heroes, his latest album of bluegrass and country music on August 17, and said he is hoping to continue the success of previous releases and to bring happiness to others through his music.
Friends And Heroes is Colin’s third album and features original compositions along with cover versions of some of his favourite songs.
The title was inspired by the album’s duets, all of them recorded with friends, some of whom started off as heroes.
Colin’s route into country music has followed a winding road.
He began writing poetry at an early age and has had several collections of poetry published over the years.
As an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church Of Wales, he has also written hundreds of hymns and worship songs.
In 2006, Colin wrote the lyrics to what became his first song, a classical crossover love song titled ‘When I’m With You’, which was recorded in 2008 as an album.
He later acted on his passion for country and bluegrass music and began writing songs in the style, for himself and others.
During a trip to Nashville in 2017, Colin visited a studio on Music Row to be present while several of his songs were recorded by other artists.
That same evening, as guests of the studio boss, he and several friends went to a country music venue and this saw him on the other side of the microphone at an open mic night and, thanks to the amazing reaction he received, that is where his recording career began.
Since that fateful night, Colin has now recorded three albums and has been praised for his music, including being named bluegrass artist of the year in 2018 at the Akademia Music Awards 2018 and best bluegrass song in 2019.
He was also presented with an Artist Vision Award for his services to the music business and to the furtherance of bluegrass.
Commenting on his latest release, he said: “I am delighted to celebrate my birthday with the launch of my latest album.
“The idea of the album was to record the songs of some of my country music heroes, stars like Jim Reeves, Slim Whitman and Hank Snow, and package them together with a mixture of my own songs and classic traditional country songs sung as duets with some of my friends from Nashville.
“The singers who join me on the album are Jimmy Payne, a veteran multi-million selling songwriter and artist; Cindy Hall, a well-seasoned performer from Nashville; Sandy Smolen, a songwriter who has been involved in most aspects of the music business as well as being an artist himself; Brian ‘The Hat’ Duckworth, an artist originally from the UK Midlands, now a singer in Austria and Ernie Rowell.
“The latter not only owns the studio on Music Row where I record, but is also producer on all of my albums.
“Ernie was bass guitarist with the legendary George Jones for many years and also worked for Mel Tillis, Stonewall Jackson and Ray Price, all names to be conjured within the country music world.
“When recording, I only work with the best musicians to produce an authentic Bluegrass Country sound.”
Friends And Heroes is widely available to download and stream online and also to buy from Sheer Joy Music.