Last weekend on the guitar-favouring station Radio X, listeners voted for their favourite British songs of all time. The top 100 contained 18 songs by Oasis or a solo Gallagher brother and three by 35-year-old Glaswegian Gerry Cinnamon — even though he hasn’t yet had a top 40 single.
The unassisted rise of the man born Gerard Crosbie has been extraordinary. Without a record label or a backing band, he’s sold out Glasgow’s Hampden Park Stadium this summer.
This might be explained by the sound of this second album. Highly catchy songs performed with just acoustic guitar, kick-drum thumps, a rasp of harmonica and his thickly accented vocals, it’s like the moment in a gig when the song breaks down to allow the crowd to sing along — the whole time.
Bob Dylan did it with better lyrics, and Ed Sheeran does the one-man band thing with more innovation, but it’s still easy to be swept along by the sunny melody of Where We’re Going or the gently plucked folk of title track (“Bonny” is short for bonfire).
On Outsiders and Six String Gun, he positions himself as a rebel with a guitar. It’s strange that such rudimentary music should pass for revolution, but these are strange times.