"George Barnett is an 18 year old musician and singer/songwriter from England. He started making music aged three. He plays drums, piano, guitar, bass, trumpet and harmonica, as well as singing. He writes all his own songs, as well as recording and producing them."
Well, that's the introductory blurb from George's website (www.georgebarnett.co.uk), which then goes on to explain how busy he's been since 2008. He won Young Drummer of the Year, put out an EP, Sierra Planes, in 2010 and frequently plays live with his band 'The Ninth Wave'. Now in 2012, he's just released his first full-length recording: the album 17 Days via Bandcamp, which is where I came across his material for the first time and after a listen or two, discovered that it's little wonder that the LP is cruising high up on Bandcamp's Most Popular charts at the moment.
Now that, in my humble opinion, is not bad at all. George has a great voice and his songs manage to blends elements of a wide selection of styles (pop, rock, funk, latin and folk all jump out at first) without sounding disparate at all. Evidently a number of tunes are put together in a quite 'Beatles-ey' or 'Motown-ey fashion and really catchy, the sometime addition of strings and brass feels completely in place.
Wisely positioned, the first handful of tracks are wonderfully hook-laden, really drawing you into the album, which is no bad thing at all - as less 'straight-down-the-line' numbers find themselves interlaced with the more direct pop tunes. Take for example Cassi which is has a great dance groove or The Other Girl (in two parts) that puts me more in mind of the Chili Peppers early, really funky output. In short 17 Days is a brilliantly diverse LP that rewards repeat listens as you pick out more and more great little moments.
For a quickfire introduction - you could do worse than check out the video for Lone Rose:
And finally, as for gigs; seek George (and the Ninth Wave) popping up within line-ups at The Rainbow (Birmingham) on 26th April, The Fleece (Bristol) on 13th May and at The Clapham Grand (London) on 13th July.