Corinne Bailey Rae

In 2006 Corinne Bailey Rae released her self-titled debut album, a record she had recorded on a shoestring budget while still unsigned. An early appearance on BBC2’s ‘Later With Jools’ and some intimate gigs around the UK had started a word-of-mouth buzz leading her to be tipped as the next big thing. The album debuted at Number One in the UK, featuring hit singles such as ‘Put Your Records On’ and ‘Like A Star’, becoming a smash-hit around the world, and crashing straight into the Billboard Top 20 in the US – the first British female singer-songwriter to do so in decades – meant Bailey Rae gained a huge global audience within months.

And now, four years and four-million album sales later, comes the long-awaited second album. “All these songs have come from me,” says Bailey Rae, “and they’re all about capturing a performance with musicians I know and trust.” They were recorded mostly in Limefield Studios, a magical house in Manchester co-owned by Steve Brown (who co-produced the tracks recorded there) which was once an old ballroom and has been converted into a recording space.

Further recording took place in Bailey Rae’s own home in Leeds and with her other co-producer Steve Chrisanthou at his 600 Feet studio – literally 600 feet up a Yorkshire hillside. There was an excursion to Manchester, to record strings and horns at the Royal Northern College Of Music. And on a trip further afield to Los Angeles to contribute songs to ‘Lay It Down’, last year’s album by soul legend Al Green, Bailey Rae worked with drummer Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson and keyboard player James Poyser of The Roots to create the trashy funk of ‘The Blackest Lily’.

Jason Rae, a gifted saxophonist and Corinne Bailey Rae’s husband, died in March 2008. ‘I’d Do It All Again’, a sweeping, defiant but woozy song – and the first single – is one of the many songs written before this.
Overall ‘The Sea’ is, in part about the uniting bonds of grief, stretching from her aunt to herself and to all those around her. “All the bonds deepened. And all the dross is washed away as well. Only the purest things survive. That’s one really beautiful thing about it.”

Ultimately, though, ‘The Sea’ covers the waterfront of human emotion. Yes, the worst kind of heartbreak is in there. But so are the best kinds of love, plucked from deep within this most truthful, unflinching of artists. “Everything I do I just want to be real and honest,” Bailey Rae concludes. And this album is without a doubt one of the most honest works of recent years, and one of the most beautiful too.

‘The Sea’ was released on Good Groove / Virgin Records on  February 1. The critically acclaimed second album has been nominated for Mercury Music Prize. The winner will be announced September 7th 2010.

Latest tour dates:

21/07 The Teatre Grec - Barcelona

22/07 Lope De Vega Teatre - Seville

28/07 Esplanade Theatre - Singapore

30/07 Fuji Rocks - Japan

01/08 Fuji Rocks - Japan

01/08 Valley Rocks Festival, Forest Ski Resort - Korea

06/08 Governors Island - New York

07/08 Kanawha Plaza, Richmond - Virginia

08/08 Aaron's Amphitheatre - Atlanta

12/08 Verizon Wireless Music Center - Birmingham, AL

12/08 Granada Theatre - Dallas, TX

14/08 La Zona Rosa - Austin, TX

Check Corrine's myspace for many more dates over the Summer months.