Thanks for the tip - I'll be getting the album.

I've known Naomi for quite a few years. She's a top lass and absurdly talented, and it's great to see that she's beginning to attract attention after so many years of hard work. She appeared on Later back in about 1998 (I think) with Orbital - that's her singing on 'Funny Break (One Is Enough)' - and at the recording she drew praise from no less a figure than Peter Buck, who told her she had a great voice. I remember her being absolutely thrilled to bits by that, and I always felt it was just a matter of time before the wider world cottoned on.

Anyway, I forwarded this link to her and she tells me she's working on her first solo album. No idea when it's due, but she's been working with Paul Heaton as well as Justin Currie, and is going to be doing something with Alasdair Roberts as well.

Big thumbs-up for the song, too. Just as Del Amitri were an underrated band, Justin Currie's an underrated writer.

It's actually her *second* album she's currently working on.

The following is a write up by Paul Simmonds regarding the Naomi Bedford album from The Men They Couldn't Hang website........

Hello TMTCH people,

here's a brief update about a project i'm working on at the moment which you might find interesting. regular gig go-ers have probably seen naomi bedford at our shows, particularly singing the female part in silver gun. well, for the last few months i've been collaborating on her 2nd album 'tales from the weeping willow' - a folk/country hybrid of murder ballads both old and new. i'm playing guitar, plus a few other things and helping to produce and write.

there's a fair few special guests on this album. justin currie from del amitri sings 2 duets; 'one of a kind' a new song by naomi, and 'castle and keep' which he wrote especially for the record. there's also a new song 'ferryboat inn' written by paul heaton from the beautiful south which he also sings on. It is a bizarre kind of fairground waltz.

elsewhere there's two guest contributions from will oldham - also known as bonny prince billy - one on a very old ballad called 'elendor' and also a vocal on a new song of mine called 'daddy's got a gun' about a notorious recent family murder.

as if that weren't tasty enough there's also two spots for ultra good new folk artist alisdair roberts - including a cover of 'colwyn bay', a yet to be recorded track with dick gaughan, contributions from our own ricky mcguire and tom spencer and a version of warren zevon's 'roland the thompson gunner'.

should see the light of day in the autumn with a bit of luck.

for previews check out naomi's site: www.myspace.com/naomibedford1

see you down the line

Paul Simmonds

The above-mentioned album (I'm playing pedal steel on a couple of tracks) now appears to be available to order from Naomi's website:
http://www.naomibedford.co.uk/

Also shown up on the fRoots radar:
http://froots.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4314&start=30