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The selection of songs on A WINTER TALE poignantly touch on a variety of themes, some of them dark, sung with Long’s deep signature rasp. His distinct finger-picking style on guitar is also prominently in evidence while he is backed by an eclectic complement of studio musicians on standup bass, pedal-steel guitar, vibraphones, drums, piano and keyboards.
Included on the CD are several songs that have become associated with him over the endless months of touring, among them the guitar-driven “The Bounty of Mary Jane,” the haunting imagery of “Being a Mockingbird,” the anthemic “Dead and Done” (“I’ve already had the neighbors here, Johnny Cash came ‘round and we split a beer” “) and the defiant “Penance Fire Blues” contrasted with the spare, plaintive “Who Have You Been Loving,” which was embraced in its simplest acoustic form—lifted from the self-released homemade recording, DIRTY POND SONGS, that was only available at his shows.
Other songs on the record include “In the Frost,” which paints word pictures of scenes from Long’s native England, and “A Passing Tale” and “Sick Man Blues,” which are throwbacks to the traditional folk era of the 1960’s. “A Stranger Song,” the closer, brings to mind the wordplay of one of Long’s major influences: Leonard Cohen. “Two Years Old,” a finely crafted story song about the ravages of war, conjures images reminiscent of the battle scenes in the film Atonement, and the title cut, “A Winter Tale,” is a driving, memorable opus that demands repeat plays.
Long, who moved to London from Wiltshire in the southwest of England to attend college, became part of the burgeoning open mic circuit to expose his music. He met actor and fellow musician Robert Pattinson, who would go on to sing “Let Me Sign” (co-written by Long and friend Marcus Foster) over a crucial dramatic scene in the blockbuster film Twilight. The inclusion of the song in the film’s soundtrack gave Long a head start on a legion of fans. Although A WINTER TALE is the 24-year-old’s first foray into the formal recording process, “Left to Lie,” his first single from the DIRTY POND SONGS collection, reached #1 on the iTunes “Unsigned” chart and #8 on the Folk chart. Pollstar wrote: “Long’s emergence as an up-and-coming artist is the stuff Hollywood loves to make movies about. He continues to amaze audiences with a bare-bones sound reminiscent of early Bob Dylan.”
