The Proclaimers with local singer/songwriter Laura Tsaggaris
Where: The Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria
When: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 13
Info: $25; ticketmaster.com
The Proclaimers may well be the coolest band you have yet to discover.
Although the twin brothers who are now touring behind their eighth studio album have had chart success in the United States — and plenty of popular success with the hit “I’m Gonna Be (I Would Walk 500 Miles)” — they are arguably better known for the pop/folk/new wave sound in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The group continually makes headway here, though, presenting some killer shows such as those at the annual music industry gathering SXSW.
“We are glad to be coming back over,” said principal singer/songwriter Craig Reid.
“This will be an electric tour. We did two short acoustic stints earlier this year. We’ve been playing with a band in Scotland, England and Ireland.”
Of course Reid and his brother Charlie, who handles guitar duties, began their careers playing gigs in their Scottish homeland. After signing to Chrysalis in 1987 the band’s songs — often about emigration and politics — resulted in gold and platinum albums and critical kudos.
Now touring behind their latest album “Notes & Rhymes” — which was released Sept. 8– the band has already received kudos from such music industry heavyweights as Q magazine which reports “When the brothers cut loose, their harmonizing remains a freshening blast to fill the heart,” and the BBC reporting “Not a note out of place or a lazy lyric in sight.”
Craig Reid takes the kudos in stride talking about writing as a natural part of his thought process.
“I think it evolves,” he said. “One thing, you want to write what you believe in, the truth as you see it. … We wrote this in the last six months of last year. That’s the shortest time we ever took to write a record.”
You certainly wouldn’t know by listening to the album. “Love Can Move Mountains,” is a charmingly upbeat ballad highlighted by the brothers’ soaring, distinctive harmonies.
But that’s not to say all the songs are about such sweet odes.
Consider “Sing All Our Cares Away,” about those plunged into despair during hard times. Then there’s “It was Always So Easy (To Find An Unhappy Woman),” which is so country it would fit into any club set near Nashville’s Music Row.
Craig Reid waves away kudos for the eclectic collection, seeing himself more as a conduit than a creator.
“They chose themselves,” he said of the songs. “I really just sat down and starting pecking them off, putting them in key. The music is speaking to you. I just have to listen.”
