WHEN THE INTROVERTS COME OUT – A DEBUT ALBUM BY MARTIN FLETT

From the remote, rugged and breathtakingly beautiful Outer Hebrides of Scotland, comes a remarkable debut album with an equally remarkable back story.

The album was recorded in the critically acclaimed Wee Studio in Ness, near the northern tip of the Outer Hebridean archipelago, with a fantastic group of talented local musicians including studio owner Keith Morrison, Scott C Park, Colin Macleod, Andrew Eaton Lewis and Louisa Maclean.

The songs are beautifully crafted, often poignant, instantly memorable, with more than a nod to the singer-songwriters of the ‘seventies and to the Irish country music scene.  They’ll make you cry, reflect, laugh and join in.  They’ll mean different things to different people.

Singer songwriter, Martin Flett, had only ever written one song before lockdown.  Martin has been a local government manager, a gym owner, a housing manager, a successful powerlifter with multiple Scottish, British and international titles and records and, since 2015, the lead commentator at World and European Powerlifting Championships.

And now, in his most recent incarnation, at the age of 68 and beating his friend Norman Paterson’s record for the oldest Hebridean to record a debut album, a singer songwriter, who renewed his acquaintance with a guitar in the days when mingling was discouraged and we all sat indoors except when shopping and taking essential exercise.

Since that fateful time in 2020, Martin has written over a hundred songs, eleven of which feature on his debut album, ‘When The Introverts Come Out’. More details of all the songs, including lyrics and how they came about can be found on martinflettmusic.co.uk .

Martin wrote the words and music to all the songs except ‘Falling In Slow Motion’, a co-write with fellow island musician Cree Mackenzie.  In earlier times, ‘Falling In Slow Motion’ and ‘If Wishes Were Horses’ would have been the ‘singles’ and are particularly recommended for radio play.  But each of the eleven songs has a life and story of its own, and different people have different favourites.

“I never intended or wanted to be a performer,” said Martin, “but I soon realised that if I didn’t ‘take my songs to market’ then no one else was going to and they would wither on the vine.”

“My dream is still that one or more of the songs are taken forward by an established artist, but in the meantime it would be great to bring the songs to a wider audience and use the proceeds from CD sales and downloads to fund a follow up album.  The next set of songs is ready and waiting…”

Available to download from iTunes.

CDs from birnamcdshop.com, amazon.co.uk and amazon.com