Scott Wainwright hails from Barnsley, as do I, and so I was really keen to give this album a listen. He describes himself on his Facebook profile as “Maverick Blues, Gospel and Hip Hop Musician. Husband and Father. Thinker, Optimist, Man of Faith” and if anything I’d have added “a bit quirky” to that list too. I follow Scott on Facebook and he never seems not to be playing a gig somewhere or other and he’s going to be playing at the North West Audio Show at the end of June too and I’m really looking forward to seeing him live.

Every Man Has His Critics is a single album with a gatefold sleeve and plays at 45rpm, despite there being eleven tunes herein. It’s been put together with the help of Alan Clarke of Kralk Audio fame.

Just to give you an idea Scott plays guitar, harmonica, piano, banjo, percussion, melodica, jewish harp, bass, toys and he sings too and it’s all a bit one-man-band goes into the studio and takes his musician mates along to help out…this is no bad thing and the result is a beautifully raw and honest record that it’s difficult not to love.

There’s bits of country, bits of blues, a smidgen of hip hop and a smattering of Captain Beefheart in there and the tunes are unpolished, unrefined and sincere. This is not to suggest the tunes aren’t well crafted, they are, it’s more of a comment on the insight into the writer and musician that you get with this kind of unadulterated, straightforward and unpretentious record. Scott comes across as the kind of bloke you’d happily spend time chewing the fat and having a few pints with after the gig and whilst Every Man Has his Critics is unlikely to trouble the charts, it is the kind of record that will be talked about by folk who love and enjoy their music ‘real’.

Here’s what Scott himself has to say about Every Man “The album is about hope, loss, the cosmos and our place in it… and Shoes. The album represents to me artistic freedom, the start on a journey I knew I would one day take. It was the first time I was fully in charge of a musical project, where I could sound like I wanted to sound.”

Go buy it, go see him!

Stuart Smith