Eddi Reader

Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #135 (April/May 2008).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Eddi Reader

Finding the Glorious in the Ordinary

by Kerry Dexter

Eddi Reader's most recent albums include Eddi Reader Sings Songs of Robert Burns, her unique tribute to the Scottish poet, and Peacetime, a folk-influenced collection of songs Reader wrote or co-wrote, contemporary covers, and more by Robert Burns. "I've never really left the folk world; it's the world I started out in," Reader said.

She's taken a few excursions, though, playing disco music, being part of a punk band, acting the part of a country singer in a television series, and scoring a #1 U.K. pop chart hit while singing with the band Fairground Attraction. "I never really left the folk world -- except that I had a pop hit and nobody would talk to me! They thought I was somewhere else, and I was like, 'No, I'm still here, I'm still on the acoustic guitar, it's just a pop chart hit, that's all.' I'd always go to folk clubs, no matter if I'd been playing for the queen, or Prince Charles, or Princess Diana at those charity things they used to do. I'd still be goin' down to the folk club to have a bit of a jam, you know.

"I think that's the difference between folk musicians and what I call careerist musicians. I think with careerist musicians you don't tend to get the jamming or the musicality. You get inspiring and amazing songs sometimes, but I like the craic with the folk musicians, I like the easy banter and the easy movement of music between people."

[cover #135]