Jim McCulloch and Anna Sheard on Snowgoose, those Sandy Denny comparisons and life as a Soup Dragon

TEDDY JAMIESON

IT’S been a while. The last time anyone heard from Snowgoose, David Cameron was still Prime Minister and in coalition with the Lib Dems, One Direction were still a going concern and everyone was looking forward to the Olympic games in London. Eight years on and the world is in a very different place, but Snowgoose, aka former Soup Dragon Jim McCulloch and English singer Anna Sheard, in conjunction with a supporting cast of musicians from the likes of Belle and Sebastian, Teenage Fanclub, The Bluebells, Camera Obscura and The Pearlfishers, are still dabbling in a time stream where

Laurel Canyon harmonies intermingle with 1960s folk.

“I’ve always had a great love of west coast American sixties music and Anna likes that as well,” McCulloch says, summing up the Snowgoose sound. “Fairport Convention used to do covers of Bob Dylan songs and there was a cross-fertilisation of English folk and Scottish folk and west coast American. And it just became something else. That’s the same kind of thing we’re doing. It’s all about the songs and the voice basically.”

The band made their debut in 2012 with the album Harmony Springs. Ian Rankin named it one of his albums of the year. Now, McCulloch and Sheard return with a new record, The Making of You, which, if anything, sees them double down on their timelessness. It takes the building blocks of their sound and adds depth and lushness.

The result is a summery blast of sound that has a deep, dark undertow (Paul Giovanni’s soundtrack to The Wicker Man has been cited as an influence), powered by McCulloch’s musicianship and Sheard’s beautifully English folk voice. The Single Who Will You Choose, in particular, sounds like some long-lost collaboration between Sandy Denny and David Crosby.

When we speak, McCulloch is in lockdown in Anniesland with his wife and sons. He and his eldest have already had the virus, but they have both recovered and McCulloch can once again concentrate on promoting the new album.

First question, Jim. Why has it taken so long? “A combination of everything. I went back to uni and I got a Masters [in music and songwriting at the University of the West of Scotland] and Anna started a young family. Real life gets in the way. We eventually got all our ducks lined up again and said, ‘Right, we need to get on with this otherwise we’ll never do it.’”

“Looking back, it’s hard to believe it is that long,” agrees Sheard who, after 16 years in Glasgow, returned home to the West Country a few years ago.

“But we know why. It’s absolutely life.

Both Jim and I have been busy. Trying to juggle all that has been complicated. Plus, in the middle of all that, I had a child. So, lots going on really.”

The wait has been worth it, though. The Making of You is a confident, vibrant album. It is also much more of a collaboration than Harmony

Springs.

“The first time round I had the songs all ready to go,” McCulloch points out. “I had written them as a vehicle for Anna to sing because I’d fallen in love with her voice and we agreed that we wanted to work together.

“Anna is a creative person in her own right. She’d been to art school and I knew she was bursting to contribute.’”

And so this time Sheard was fully involved in the writing process. “It felt like you would always hope a record would be written,” she says. “I was a bit like a rabbit in the headlights when I first met Jim and was handed all these beautiful songs for Harmony Springs. To then have a dialogue with him was just wonderful, really.”

What’s obvious from even the most cursory listen is the power and character of Sheard’s voice. All the more remarkable then to realise that she wasn’t sure about her voice when she first met McCulloch.

“It’s bizarre,” agrees McCulloch. “I think she’d sung in the school choir. She moved up to Glasgow to study and it wasn’t really on her radar apart from in and around the house. But she had something special.

“My friend Dave [sometime member of Teenage Fanclub and Belle and Sebastian, Dave McGowan] knew I was looking for singers for a different project and he said, ‘Why don’t you listen to Anna?’ They were sharing a flat together. He sent me a home demo of the Neil Young song Only Love Can Break Your Heart and it was like someone wrapped up this gift and handed it to me.”

“Within a couple of days Jim had

JESSIE WARE

WHAT’S YOUR PLEASURE?

Virgin EMI Records

It was around a decade ago that Jessie Ware first began to make waves, a club-ready vocalist elevated by collaborations with electronic acts including SBTRKT and Disclosure.

But in recent years, Ware faded into the mainstream. The Londoner’s 2017 release Glasshouse verged on generic, struggling to recapture the excitement, and success, of her two earlier albums.

What’s Your Pleasure? is a refreshing return to the dancefloor for Ware. The 12-track album is smoky, hazy and flirtatious with its intimate lyrics and a contemporary take on 80s disco and funk.

Ware’s electricity in Save A Kiss could fill a sweaty nightclub – if they were open, of course – as her powerful tones pulse with the strings and synths.

Whispered verses build sexual anticipation in the sultry title-track, while Mirage (Don’t Stop) is a hazy summer anthem featuring a subtle nod to Bananarama’s hit Cruel Summer.

A return to music following the success of her podcast Table Manners, Ware’s latest release is, undoubtedly, a pleasure.