King Creosote

There is a widespread misconception that King Creosote is a title of a band, whilst, in fact, this is the stage name taken by the Scottish – multi-instrumentalist Kenny Anderson for his solo performances after the collapse of his former group Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra. As he launched his own career, Kenny began making records based on folk music inspired by the sixties. He started with accordion, but gradually mastered other instruments and thus modified the stylistic outlook of his art. The scope of Kenny’s music was so large that critics could easily refer him both to indie-rockers and to classic Scottish bards singing sad tales in the form of ballads.

There was nobody who knew Anderson’s works and was not surprised with his creativity and productivity. Within the period from 1996, he has recorded over six hundred songs and released about forty albums. However, the great majority of this works did not reach the wide audience for they were issued by the musician’s own label that was able to grant them good promotion. The Scottish press proclaimed Kenny the best contemporary folk-performer and urged him to move to a higher level, seek strong partners and enter the international stage. Still, the artist stood his ground and revealed quite an expected point of view. He did not strive to perform in front of big crowds and did not want to abandon his native land in Fife, Scotland. Anderson gave up in 2005 when he released a fully brilliant album called Rocket DIY. This studio work was so nice that the artist betrayed his principles and decided to offer this record to the international public. To do so, Anderson in 1996 made an agreement with 679, a subsidiary of Warners. Soon, there followed the release of the long player under the title KC Rules OK (2006). This was the artist’s first album to be issued in big numbers and receive considerable support from radio stations. English music experts poured praise all over this studio effort. Gradually, King Creosote promoted folk, a trend far from most popular, to the mainstream league.

In 2007, King Creosote made a true breakthrough after coming back with the brand new Bombshell. This collection of thirteen compositions became a splendid combination of everything best from the musician’s past experiments and different career stages. The album opener is the mournful Leslie based on Kenny’s brilliant accordion play. The song sets a very high standard for the rest of the tracks, and they did not leave the listeners disappointed. Among the other pieces, it is reasonable to mention the catchy country rock number You’ve No Clue Do You and the majestic And The Racket They Made closing the album. The greatest part of all the compositions featured on this record was penned by Anderson under the impressions from the events that had taken place in his life. For instance, Church As Witness was written after the argument he had with his daughter during their walk out of the town. Now, that King Creosote is well-known far from Scotland and the artist is a warmly welcomed participant to venues in any country, Kenny keeps focusing on the studio activity. There is nothing better to him than his home, and he seems to like making music in his tiny Fife much more than playing music off the gigantic stage. The musician has never slowed down and still delivered top quality records regularly. He proved it in spring 2009 with the release of another studio album, Flick The Vs.