Living amongst the rolling hills of Dorset’s Isle of Purbeck, singer song/writer Tim Lacey has always surrounded himself with music: after playing with a band for many years he decided to go it alone to write and perform his own songs. 2024 was spent performing at a host of local events gaining confidence and trying out a host of new original songs. A lot of the songs come from a humble place with subjects being culled from family, hobbies (Landrovers) and a heartfelt tune about a lost pet. These songs are all being prepared for release on a debut album, set to be released in the coming months
Before then as teasing preview, Tim has released his debut single “Flickering Candles”; a Folk song that tells the tragic story of the East Indian ship Halsewell, wrecked off the Dorset coast from the perspective of a visiting scuba diver exploring the bay for its hidden secrets. The ship went down off South Coast between Peverel point and St. Alban’s head near Swanage in Dorset after a particularly violent storm in January 1796 while it was shipping cargo between London and Madras in India. Sadly out of the 240 strong crew only 74 of them survived, a tragedy that shocked the nation and even at the time the then King George III visited the site to pay his respects to those lost.
In the song Tim has kept the memory of the disaster’s victims alive, living fairly close by to the location the event details were thoroughly researched and detailed within the vividly descriptive lyrics. The song is backed with atmospheric instrumentation and subtle rhythms and is coupled with passionate vocals with the lyrics “They were so close to shore” hammering home how things could have been so different if that night the weather hadn’t been so cruel. Tim is like a cooler version of your old history teacher at school – you know the one with the corduroy jacket with the patches on the sleeves and big sideburns!! He entertains and educates in equal amounts and this is just the start, clearly there is a lot more to come from this talented Purbeck troubadour.
Links
https://www.facebook.com/TimLaceyMusic
https://soundcloud.com/timo-lacey
Article by David Chinery
Photograph by Jenni Harrison
