JOHNNY BLUE’S WELL
The debut 5-track EP from award-winning singer-songwriter, Fergus McNeill
Fergus McNeill’s 5-track debut EP ‘Johnny Blue’s Well’ takes its title from a place just outside his childhood hometown, Barrhead. Local legend suggests that the well takes its name from a dye-worker who stopped there each evening to wash away his stains, before heading for home. For Fergus and his childhood friends, it was also a place of transition and escape; and place to run away to, and a place to run home from.
As a latecomer to song-writing, the impetus to share his songs with a wider audience came when Fergus’s song ‘Bloodrush’ was chosen from over 1300 entries as the winner of a UK songwriting competition. That success led to a memorable road-trip to record the song at Abbey Road Studios. ‘Bloodrush’ was released on JAM Records as Fergus’s debut single in October 2021. Boo Hewerdine, one of our finest songwriters and one of the competition judges, described ‘Bloodrush’ as
“…a remarkable song that blew me away both musically and lyrically”.
Lyrically and sonically the ‘Johnny Blue’s Well’ EP represents an evolution of the identifiably Scottish, contemporary folk-inspired sound that Fergus has developed, seasoned by a wide range of pop, indie, country and blues influences.
For the recording, Fergus was joined by Louis Abbott (on percussion, mellotron and additional vocals), Les Back (on Dobro steel guitar), Jill O’Sullivan (on violin and additional vocals), Graeme Smillie (on bass, harmonium, piano and organ) and Alison Urie (on vocals). All 5 songs were recorded ‘in-the-round’ at Chem19 studios in Blantyre. Despite the addition of a few overdubs here and there, the EP retains much of the live feel the came from recording the core elements of each track simultaneously.
About this release, Fergus says:
“The oldest of these songs, the EP’s title track, was written almost a decade ago, and the youngest, ‘Wild Angelica’, was written just a month or two before we went into the studio in December 2023.
They are all rooted in and inspired by different places I’ve travelled to. But really I think they are all about where and with whom we belong. With that in mind, it feels fitting that the EP ends back where I started, in Barrhead, and with the line ‘I think I’m going home’.”
Johnny Blue’s Well is released on 31 March 2024 on Fergus’s Bandcamp page; release on all major streaming platforms follows on 05 April 2024.
A launch gig for the EP is planned for Saturday 27 April 2024 at the Dream Machine in Glasgow.