The release of Jack Savoretti’s debut album ‘Between The Minds’ in 2007 earned him glowing praise from across the board with comparisons to Nick Drake & Damien Rice (Classic Rock Magazine), Ray LaMontagne (Word Magazine, Independent) and John Martyn and Van Morrison (Rock n Reel) yet Jack’s distinctive storytelling and husky voice ensured that he was able to take his place in his own right alongside these respected artists. His standing was further endorsed when Q awarded the album 4 stars and declared that Jack “stands out from the current glut of soft-lad singer-songwriters” and Mojo placed Jack at number 2 in their playlist saying “folk troubadour Savoretti has a voice to warm romantic hearts but he also has enough edge to maintain interest beyond the norm”.

Born in 1983, Jack didn’t pick up a guitar until he was 16. Half Italian, half English, he moved around Europe as a child, wound up at an American school in Switzerland where he picked up an accent he describes as “transatlantic mutt”. The only thing that interested him was poetry. “I was writing all the time, it was the thing to do, sit under a tree with a notebook, go somewhere else in your head. I was in the clouds.” Then Jack’s mother gave him a guitar and suggested he try putting some of his words to music. “I was surprised how much more people listen to you when you are singing than if you read a poem,” he admits. “After that, I couldn’t stop, it was constant writing, every day, it became almost a form of conversation, the way I interact with the world.

Jack bummed around for a couple of years, composing “a reggae song one day, a country song the next. What I sounded like depended on what kind of mood I was in.” He rarely wrote the songs down. “If I don’t remember it, it’s obviously not worth finishing,” is his theory. He was playing, “two or three hours a day, just walking around with a guitar, finding who I was in music. I’m always looking for the moment in a song. It should be a great read, not just a three minute shot but a whole movie with an incredibly complicated twist that leaves you thinking for days.”

Signed, on the basis of his demo, to London based independent label De Angelis Records Jack headed into the studio to record his debut album.

With the release of his first two singles from the album, ‘Without’ and ‘Dreamers’, Jack received an unprecedented level of play on Radio 2 and the station’s support continued when the album was made ‘Album Of The Week’ and the title track was subsequently playlisted. Radio 1’s Jo Whiley selected Jack as one of her six artists for the Jo Whiley Inside Track on VH1. Jack’s album was in the top 20 on the iTunes chart, reached number 5 in the independent album chart and number 7 in the Amazon chart.

A captivating live performer, Jack was invited by Shawn Colvin to support her on her European tour in both 2006 and 2007. Having also supported Corinne Bailey Rae, Jack maintained his live presence with a string of British headline dates and a series of in-store performances. Jack was also invited by Chris Martin to perform, alongside Dominic Miller and Robbie McIntosh, at a celebration of Martin guitars at London’s Hard Rock Café in May. In July 2007 Jack performed at the Del Sonno Music Festival in the Tuscan village of Bagni di Lucca invited by Andy Davies, the producer of Jonathan Ross’ Radio 2 show. Jack also recently supported Christopher Cross at the prestigious O2 venue in London.

A deluxe edition of ‘Between The Minds’ was released on March 31st 2008 to coincide with Jack’s tour of Caffe Nero and includes the original album CD plus a bonus unplugged CD, with four news songs and acoustic versions of some of the original recordings.

photos: Nilsfilm