‘Life Lines’, the second album by Rock n Roll Angels, is now available to stream and download on Bandcamp and Spotify. Find out about the making of the album on my YouTube channel, here.

Bristol group Rock n Roll Angels return for a second collaboration with dBs Pro and experimental producer Jay Auborn.
‘Life Lines’ is a 7-track mini-album, featuring 5 songs tracing a life journey through gambling, debt, work, escape, and commitment. The songs were recorded in Bristol, at dBs Pro studios. Three of the tracks were then mixed live by Auborn, in St Michael and All Angel’s church, through a process known as ‘reamping’. The musicians’ performances were played out into the church space, through multiple speakers, and then captured with a single microphone to create binaural mixes for each song. The remaining four tracks were mixed at dBs Pro, using the church’s sampled reverb. You can watch videos about the recording process on the band’s website.
The cover artwork reflects the five stations of the ‘Life Lines’ journey, with each symbol signposting a song.

Released January 22, 2023

Credits

The musicians’ performances were recorded at dBs Bristol, during August and September 2021, by Giorgio Cortiana, Joe Valek, Charlie Griffee, Oliver Maddern, Oihenart Garai-Morales, and Jodie Norvell, featuring:

Shaun McCrindle – vocals, guitars, percussion
Jonathan Westrup – piano, backing vocals, percussion
James Anderson – upright bass, electric bass
Jamie Hill – drums

and

All songs Copyright Control 2022

Pete Judge-harmonium (track 1)
Pete Webber-lap steel guitar (track 2)

All songs written by Shaun McCrindle, except Full Time Woman (McCrindle/Anderson)

Between August 2021 and July 2022, Rock n Roll Angels collaborated with Jay Auborn, at dBs Pro in Bristol, to produce a ‘mini-album’ called ‘Life Lines’. The project was conceived as a response to RnRA’s debut album, ‘Peaceful’, which was recorded live (mostly) in St Michael and All Angels church, on Windmill Hill, Bristol, in December 2017. Instead of recording ‘Life Lines’ live, we decided to record the songs in dBs studios and then mix them live in the church, through a process known as ‘reamping’. There are some short films about the project here.

After a COVID-induced hiatus, Rock n Roll Angels are looking forward to performing live again at this free festival in Somerset (England). You can find out more information about the event here. RnRA will be playing at 5pm on the Bandstand stage, on Sunday 3rd July.

A short promotional ad made for the eBook launch, featuring a brief excerpt from the Glass Angel song, ‘Burning Calvary’.

On March 17th, I celebrated the publication of my songwriting memoir – ‘Journey of Song’ – by launching a bottled lyric of the first song I ever wrote, into the River Avon (in Bristol). Click on the link to watch the launch video, made with my daughter Grace.

After recording the audio for Shozzo’s performance of ‘The Salt Path’, in October 2021, Joe Valek interviewed me on his Joe-to-go show, in March 2022. We talked about songwriting, Rock n Roll Angels’ Life Lines project and the Journey of Song memoir. Listen to the full show on Mixcloud here (track listing and timings in the photo) or on YouTube – in two parts – here.

In October 2021, Shozzo – an acoustic trio comprising John Slattery on bouzouki, James Anderson on upright bass, and myself on guitar and vocals – performed a version of my song The Salt Path, at Windmill Community Centre, in Bristol. The performance was recorded by Joe Valek (audio) and Simon Snashall (camera and editing) and can be seen by clicking on the link.

Inspiration

I was inspired to write the song after reading Raynor Winn’s book ‘The Salt Path’, during the first Covid Lockdown of 2020. The book records an epic walk she and her partner undertook in 2013, along the 500+ miles of the southwest coastal path in the UK. This was no holiday! The couple had nowhere to live after they’d lost their house through a bad investment, so they decided to walk, and walk, and walk, camping each night wherever they could find a spot along the narrow confines of the rugged coastal path. They were out in the open air, with very little to survive on, for months. Critics described it as a “triumph of hope over adversity”.