We seem to be finding a lot about the range of Elles Bailey’s talent recently – her last single was a soul tinged paean to motherhood and this takes away the tinge and goes full in on the smoky soul singer with a superb song in the nature of Carole King or Dusty Springfield.
The song originated in the US - : as Elles explains, “During 'lockdown season one' as I like to call it, a writer from America (Mike Morgan) reached out to me and said that he had a bunch of lyrics he’d written with his co-writers and would I like to put some music to them. I was intrigued - I had never worked as a writer in this way before, but as I had a lot of time on my hands I asked him to send them over to me and I was really drawn to the lyrics of “Lean on my Love”. So for the first time ever sat down and composed the music and melody inspired by reading the lyrics and I only edited the lyrics a little bit. It’s the one and only time I’ve ever worked like this and it was a really interesting experience to write this way. To this day I have not met any of the lyrical writers however Mike and I talk a lot via email”
The musicians on this are Stefan Redtenbacher on bass; Tony Remy on guitar; Ross Stanley on Hammond and piano; Mike Sturgis on drums; and Kim Keyes on backing vocals - a long way from her usual band but filmed in 2020, during lockdown and while Elles was somewhat pregnant.
It is a very different Elles Bailey, but we have heard elements of this in a lot of her earlier material, and it is a delightful listen.
I have a feeling this will be a staple for a long time to come
