The Sleeping Years is the new project for ex-Catchers singer songwriter Dale Grundle.
Dale was born in Coleraine, Northern Ireland to an Irish father and a Scottish mother and started his first band Catchers while at school. Their first single ‘Cotton Dress’ came out on Setanta Records and became single of the week in Melody Maker. Their debut album ‘Mute’ was recorded with Mike Hedges in France. Dale went on to tour with Pulp, Edwyn Collins, The Divine Comedy, Dr. John and Oasis. Catchers recorded their second album ‘Stooping to Fit’ with Nick Drake’s arranger Robert Kirby writing string and brass section parts for some of the songs.
The Sleeping Years’ debut ‘You and me against the world’ EP. All the songs on ‘You and me against the world’ were written, played and recorded by Dale at home and the EP also features dictaphone recordings of his father and of the world outside his house.
In practice Dale’s songs encapsulate a lot of the qualities that are around in today’s acoustic market, that’s no bad thing either because there’s a lot of good stuff knocking around if you take the time to scratch past the watered down sentimentality of the more commercial offerings. Dale does however a little more in the vocal department than many of his contemporaries in such that there is an honesty and occasional fragility about his voice that accentuates his lyrics. If you need proof then take a listen to the acoustic renditions on his myspace
The Sleeping Years will be performing at The Union Chapel as part of the Daylight festival on Saturday 7th April at 12:00pm, as always the gig is free and offers you the chance to expand your personal musical map, so if you’re in the area nip along.
