I'm Across, I'm Ashore

I first heard of Nat Johnson via the curious route of a friend in America searching for a song with a Sheffield theme and sending me a mix cd with 'Sheffield Shanty' on it. I was entranced by the wistful lyrics that mentioned so many places in Sheffield that I know so well, and I was hooked. I picked up all of the 'Monkey Swallows the Universe' music that I could find and then followed Nat's move into a solo career and then with her band 'The Figureheads'.

They are now on to their second album "I'm Across, I'm Ashore" produced with the aid of Pledge Music - a service that allows fans to support bands in return for advance copies of the cd and other goodies. The album was launched at a special event at Sheffield City Hall and I was lucky enough to be there. The set opened with an unplugged of 'Pie Bird' from the balcony at the back of the hall ...

... followed by a short video about the making of the album as the band took the stage. I lost track of which songs were played, but I'm pretty sure most of 'I'm Across, I'm Ashore' was played at some point with various musicians joining in on trumpet, violin and even a musical saw at one point.





The final song before the encore saw the appearance of the crown from the 'Majesty' video.



It didn't take much encouragement for the band to come back to play 'Margot' and the old classic 'Dirty Rotten Soul'.

All in all, a superb night and I think that the album deserves to sell bucket loads!