Eddi Reader

Eddi Reader, whose honeyed voice marks her as a Glasgow native, has navigated numerous musical avenues across the decades. Long admired and embraced across Britain, she launched her performing path in the early 1980s by journeying through Europe alongside a circus troupe. She soon relocated to London to work as a session vocalist, a move that quickly yielded engagements with the Eurythmics, the Waterboys, and Gang of Four. Those situations, however, never felt like the proper fit. Her breakthrough came with Fairground Attraction, whose debut album First of a Million Kisses entered the British charts in 1988 together with the single “Perfect.”

The resulting attention, both from critics and audiences, supplied the platform from which she eventually pursued solo work, although the transition took time. Her first solo release, Mirmama, appeared in 1992 and placed her expressive vocals over strong material. Issued in limited fashion, the album drew the attention of Warner Bros., which put out her self-titled album in 1994. That follow-up contained additional Reader originals within its polished sound. While touring in support, she still found time to appear on recordings by Thomas Dolby, Liberty Horses, and others.

After her major-label association ended, Reader returned to independent outlets and delivered Candyfloss & Medicine in 1996 and Angels & Electricity in 1999 on Blanco y Negro, steadily sharpening her smooth acoustic folk-pop approach. Compass Records later reissued both Mirmama and Angels & Electricity in the United States, giving her the opportunity to present her most organic album to date, Simple Soul, in 2001. The collection Seventeen Stories: The Best of Eddi Reader and the new Driftwood arrived in 2002, followed by Eddi Reader Sings the Songs of Robert Burns in 2003 and Peacetime in 2007.

The next year brought a screen appearance in Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Wells. In 2009 she marked the 250th anniversary of Scottish poet Robert Burns’ birth by releasing a deluxe edition of The Songs of Robert Burns that included further material. That same year she also issued her ninth studio album, Love Is the Way.

Apart from a live record that surfaced in 2010, Reader observed a lengthy recording hiatus before returning with Vagabond in 2014. A somewhat shorter interval preceded her twelfth studio album, Cavalier, which appeared in 2018. Recorded in Glasgow, the set was produced by Reader and her husband John Douglas.