Little Fire

” a great voice, really upbeat lyrics , he really struck a chord with me “

Craig McGee - Warner Chappell Publishing- Regional Scottish Scout - BBC RADIO 1 -

High Hopes’ is Little Fire aka Jamie McGeechan’s seductive debut album, hot on the heels of a CD of Burns’ tracks recorded in Burns’ cottage in his honour, a world first.

I’ve been waiting for this for four years, since watching the singer songwriter perform in Dingwall in 2011. It is no surprise that the vulnerability and honesty that got me in that performance has caught me again with this enchanting release.

The 11 tracks on ‘High Hopes’ tell stories of romance delivered in Little Fire’s trademark husky Scottish drawl, stories that were waiting to be told.

For the most part, other than flickering guitar strings, instrumentals don’t meddle too much in the songs, allowing space for McGeechan’s charming vocal to take precedence. ‘All I Need In Life’, ‘Bonnie Wee Thing’ and ‘Caught In The Seams’ stand out for this reason. “There’s a girl I’m gonna see / She makes it all feel real for me / Takes me places I wanna go / All the things that I wanna know” he sings on the latter.

The opening track ‘You Mean Something To Me’ is a strong, memorable melody with piano and percussion accompaniment that lingers long after the song fades.

‘These Days’ stands out for its simplicity. It requires no embellishment beyond its sincerity infused vocal, which give the lyrics deeper meaning. The track paints an indelible picture of the brain ruling the heart, of love avoidance and the myriad of obstacles we invent to hinder love: “All my life I’ve been trying to find / A little love and a peace of mind / All my life I’ve been trying to learn / Don’t get too close and you won’t get burned / All my life I’ve been trying to make / Bad feelings for love and the ones we fake.”

The truth is we cannot hinder love, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky. This is evident in ‘To Fall In Love’, in which McGeechan sings of surrendering to a feeling that wraps around his skin. Angelic violin strings and piano flood the background. Like a beautifully cut gem, you get what’s he’s saying without it having to be spelt out.

The album’s energetic title track ‘High Hopes’ is typical of the glass half-full vibe evident throughout his stage performance, delivered with unrestrained passion. ‘I Met a Girl’ and ‘Fire Me Up Now’ achieve the latter.

The album reaches its conclusion with the hauntingly beautiful ‘Have You Seen The Moon’, another unhurried ballad: “Have you seen the moon / Have you seen yourself?” McGeechan ponders “Have you opened the door to someone else?” he wonders with a yearning vocal that burns a little fire into my veins, bringing the album to an intimate close.

The impression I’m left with is an enchanting storybook of songs speaking to matters of the heart; who or what is on his mind is beside the point, it’s who the songs prompt you to think of and the feelings they evoke that matters. There’s a wistful edge running through the entire album. A real find and a breath of fresh air on the folk, roots and acoustic scene. - Folk&Tumble

High Hopes could have as easily been entitled Not Before Time.

But then Ayr's Jamie McGeechan, as the musician Little Fire, has been so busy performing year after year and championing Ayrshire's burgeoning music scene it’s surprising he has found the time...

Since winning the 2010 Ayrplay Battle of the Bands event Jamie McGeechan has gigged continually, appeared live on national television, received national radio airplay, opened for artists including The Secret Sisters, Damien Rice, King Creosote, Andrew Roachford, Joan Armatrading and shared concert stages with Dougie McLean.

But found the time he has and, in modern singer-songwriter terms, High Hopes is a breath of fresh Ayrshire based music.
Because Jamie McGeechan’s ear for melody and ability to write honest and unpretentious tunes anchored to a Scottish, roots-based core is the perfect antidote to the fashionable singer-songwriter-guitarist that has become hugely successful via a formulaic style or hit paydirt with a commercially appealing number a whole album is then built around.

‘You Mean Something to Me,’ a staple of Little Fire’s live sets, opens the album.
Its acoustic charm and melodic, slow-tempo warmth are enhanced by the subtlest accompaniment of other instrumentation including piano and percussion.

While the additional instrumentation is a recurring theme (best exemplified on 'To Fall in Love' where piano and violin strings make a simple but charming number beautifully striking), the strongest songs are those carrying little embellishment beyond Jamie McGeechan’s guitar and husky, warm sand-over-glass vocal.

Stand out less-is-more examples include the mid-tempo love song 'Caught in the Seams' (adding only interspersed harmony vocals), 'All I Need in Life' (recorded in its original slow-tempo arrangement) and 'Bonnie Wee Thing,' which is just that.

The up-tempo, infectiously optimistic title track and ’Fire Me Up Now,’ with its hint of alternative acoustic Americana, are the punchiest acoustic numbers on display; if Jackson Browne had turned up with 'Fire Me Up Now,' it wouldn’t be off the radio.

The acoustic guitars are put aside for a full electric band rendition of 'I Met a Girl,' but such is the musical disparity between its high-energy alt-rock arrangement and the other ten tracks it would have been better served as a bonus or hidden track at the end of the album.

Sequencing 'I Met a Girl' in the middle of the album also breaks the rhythm of Little Fire’s collection of contemporary folk-pop songs with an Auld Scots lyrical influence; but on the subject of the country’s lyrical heritage…

In November, a month prior to the release of High Hopes, Jamie McGeechan became the first man in history to record songs by Robert Burns inside the famous bard’s Alloway Cottage home.
Those songs will form the Roots EP, to be launched across the pond when Little Fire performs at the American Scottish Foundation’s annual Burns Supper in New York in January 2015.

There may only be a Little Fire right now but on the basis of High Hopes, the prestigious Burns recordings and his ever-growing reputation, Jamie McGeechan could well be burning bright in the not too distant future. - Fabric HQ