Jamie Pollock is in the middle of things, literally and figuratively. Living and writing in the very centre of Scotland, feeling the buzz of University cities, industrial heartlands and the scented air of the rural hinterlands beyond, all shades of life come to colour his world. Just one man, his guitar and a long-term relationship with music, the songs that bloom from his heart and head are indebted to nearly a decade on the road, family ties and a wisdom that comes from finding, losing and rediscovering the path to happiness in music.
Pollock’s route to the ideal song is a path well-beaten. Adding in the sprawling complexities of Pink Floyd’s past, The Kinks’ multifarious dirty kitchen sink stories and the Rolling Stones’ wild ride, Pollock lands on Verve’s Urban Hymns as the defining album of his life. Finding his own fit inspired by Richard Ashcroft’s elevation out of the artificial gloss of the nineties, whipping psychedelia, prog and folk into pure, soul-mining melody, Pollock shines in a modern era similarly infected by artifice. Every note and word means something.
