Marla and David Celia - Daydreamers

  by Benjamin Howarth

published: 3 / 11 / 2018

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Review

I met David Celia a few years ago when he was playing a show in Battersea. On one of his visits to Europe from his home in Canada, he specialised in winning over unusual audiences – playing open mic nights and in place of the ‘house band’ in pubs. While most artists would have been deflated to not having the audience’s complete attention, Celia thrived on the challenge. For whatever reason, he’s been forced to build his audience gig-by-gig. But he is great at doing so. A year or so later, I went back to the same pub and, this time, it was clear people had come back specially. He splits his time mostly between touring and producing records for other artists. There were long gaps between his solo albums. In 2016, he met Marla at a German music festival. They became a couple, he produced her solo album and in two years they have racked up more than 200 gigs together. ‘Daydreamers’ is their first album as a duo. Celia has said that this record is a littler simpler than is typical of his solo work. While that is true, fans of his earlier albums will not be disappointed – there are still great guitar solos, hummable melodies and a variety of twists on country-rock. Yes, his songs can occasionally be a tad formulaic, but he uses the best available formulas. The main difference is the addition of Marla’s voice. Having listened to and loved David Celia’s music for several years, this is a classic case of not realising that something was missing until it turns up. The two voices work perfectly together – Celia’s McCartney-ish lilt and Marla’s German take on country twang are both effective alone, but they really nail the close harmony thing. If you didn’t know that the two artists on the record had just completed yet another long European tour, you’d not take much persuading that this was a rediscovery of a long-lost classic from the early 70s, so timeless does it sound. Celia’s records typically contain at least one timeless classic, which you’d swear was a cover of a hit single. On this album, he saves that track till last – ‘All In Rhyme’ is a simple little ditty, but it works perfectly and perfectly sums up a delightful album. As ever with any David Celia album, you can’t help but feel that more people should be let into the secret.

Track Listing:-

1 Carry It On
2 Lover of Mine
3 Luddite Blues
4 Where Are You
5 Daydreamers
6 Heart Like a Dove
7 Follow Me
8 Brave New Land
9 Warming Words
10 I Am Her Man
11 All in Rhyme