Newton Faulkner is a 23 year old English singer songwriter with a wistful smile and phenomenal dreadlocks. But you’ll already know him as one of 2007's most striking musical arrivals, clocking up a Number One platinum album, sell-out UK tours and a growing legion of passionate fans. This is an old fashioned word-of-mouth success story from an artist with simply stunning songs and an astonishing virtuoso guitar technique.
So just what is that Faulkner sound? It's acoustic guitar like we’ve never heard it before. It's things done to six strings that will boggle the ears and eyes. It's a throaty but gentle blues croon that speaks of backwoods, beaches and the badlands of, ah, Surrey. It’s t*u*n*e*s, the likes of which have become a word-of-myspace cult across the Cornwall surf scene and landed prestigious support slots with Jack Johnson's cult buddy Donavon Frankenreiter.
It's a genius cover of Massive Attack’s Teardrop dropped into a set to silence a rowdy crowd whilst supporting Paulo Nutini during the World Cup or the Python-esque wit with which Newton Faulkner is fast winning over audiences across the UK
July 2007 saw the release of Newton's debut album, Hand Built By Robots which showcases not only those fantastic vocals and beautifully dextrous guitar lines, but also wistful and intelligent lyrics delivered with tremendous wit. A winning formula indeed, as the album spent its first six weeks inside the top five, including two weeks at Number One, before quickly being declared Platinum. The album also secured a very tidy six week residency at Number One on the iTunes chart and stayed inside their Top Ten for the rest of the year.
By January 2008 Hand Built... had gone on to sell over 500,000 copies and secure our hero a Brits nomination for Best Male Artist. Newton has also started spreading the word globally with his first North American and European live dates - a highlight being an especially exciting performance that took place in a hot air balloon high over the Swiss Alps for a radio broadcast.
Hand Built... also offers the chance to hear that staggering version of Teardrop. There aren’t many who would have the bottle to attempt a reinvention of Liz Fraser's spectral vocal and Massive Attack’s symphonic majesty. But Faulkner does, with style. While his guitar gently weeps, his voice quietly soars. It's quite something. He's quite a talent. Lord knows what next he'll magic out of those fingers, that throat, and that instrument.