MySpace Trawl – Beth Rowley

This week we’ve broken one of our golden rules: don’t include artists/band that randomly try to add us as friends.

Usually they're just rubbish and just want to boost their friend numbers to look popular. Most of the time we skip the requests of said people. But with Beth Rowley’s friend request, we even got a little message attached: “Hey, saw the music you liked on your profile and thought you might like to check out the music on my page.” We were touched that someone went to all that trouble to communicate with us. And out of curiosity, we decided to take a gamble on her music. It could have been anything - death metal, digital feedback, good old fashioned rock n roll - but alas, it was none of those. Instead we got bluesy laid-back guitar sounds laced with stunning female vocals.

Go Beth Rowley go! 

There’s been something of late about female artists that has been bugging us. Due to the fact that men dominate the industry, it seems increasingly difficult for artists like Beth Rowley to break into mainstream radio and TV. Seemingly, the latest batches of female artists out there aren’t doing much to arouse our attention. In one corner you have the imported sexy starlet like Rihanna and, if it floats your boat, Whitney Houston. Both of these artists, however, have relied on other people to make them a success. 

Alternatively you have all your reality vixens. It took all the makings of a singing competition, but who can honestly say that our lives aren’t better off now because of Girls Aloud, Leona Lewis and Kelly Clarkson? Thank the lord they have been brought to the media spotlight. Frankly we would have been able to sleep OK at night knowing that Sarah from Girls Aloud was still working as a grease monkey at a Little Chef to pay off her student debts if she hadn’t made the group. 

But don’t think we haven't noticed other female artists out there. The brilliant Gemma Hayes and Stephanie Dosen have been on our radar for ages, but sadly not a national one while artists like KT Tunstall, Duffy, and Amy McDonald have however slipped through to critical acclaim and chart dominance. We would mention Adele, Kate Nash and Amy “My Blake” Winehouse, but going to the Brit school of music doesn’t quite count in our book. Not when you bag tons of awards from the ceremony that supports your career anyway. Favouritism? Certainly not! 

So what do we like so much about Beth Rowley then? The first song that loaded up was Be My Baby. We were so taken my Beth’s crystal clear vocal, that we never realised it was a cover of The Ronettes' famous song. But don’t ever look for the original video; The Ronettes have some creepy identical look going on.

Beth Rowley’s voice is the sort of calm and soothing one we want to hear when we’ve hurt ourselves or fallen ill. There’s just something comforting about it. She could sing us to sleep anytime.  

But it’s not all about cover versions before that wrong idea pops into your head. Looking at the list of influences, there's certainly a mixed bag. From the sadly departed TLC to Neil Young, there could be a potential for some sort of loose hip-hop meeting deep and personal lyrics.  

What we get is a laid-back, very accessible sound with lyrics not going on about sex, drinking and partners who act like morons – aka Lily Allen’s album content. Heart and soul have gone into these songs and the end product is nothing short of a touch of brilliantness. Already reaching critical acclaim from the bigwigs at Radio 2, a strong support can only elevate her further.

Would Radio 1 take some sort of risk and drop the samey R&B and guitar-based ramblings? Hopefully someone with some balls will slip this onto the airwaves so the studio message system can go mental with messages such as. “Wows! What wuz that?” and “Where can I get a kopy from so I can use it as my changing track on Jo Wiley?” Do we have any gripes? Well if we’re being petty, yes. The songs on MySpace aren’t long enough! Though that is a positive thing. If we’ve been won over by sixty seconds worth of audio, the remaining minutes can only get better. 

Read more: 

Beth Rowley MySpace