Stronger and stronger! From doubt to defiance, Rianne Downey makes more waves with second single:
STAND MY GROUND
Run On Records in assoc. with Modern Sky
If Dolly Parton grew up just to the east of Glasgow. That’s the formidable prospect music fans face with the emergence of defiant, street-smart singer-songwriter, Rianne Downey, whose second single, Stand My Ground, extends an immaculately-painted middle finger to ‘the people who put you down’. Out on Fri 26 March 2021 on Run On Records in assoc. with Modern Sky, it pours petrol on the fire raging around Downey, lit by her February debut, Fuel To The Flame.
Turning 21-years young just days releasing that first single, a moment that officially planted Downey’s flag in the fertile landscape of exciting, new British musicians aiming to make 2021 their own, Stand My Ground is the sound of towering, feminine strength sung with deceptive, country-scented serenity. Padding wire-brush and soapbox percussion sits in the haze of Downey’s crystal-cut vocal delivery, pushing into the territory of First Aid Kit and Taylor Swift as melodically-gifted, tell-it-straight storytellers.
A time of self-doubt was washed away during 2020, when Downey’s ‘fight or flight’ mechanism swung into full force, realising that Covid and lockdown could take her down with it. Finding herself and her capabilities as a performer through the prism of social media, Downey uploaded song-after-song to win a devoted audience that’s still stuck to her side. Hopelessly in love with Amy Winehouse, struck by the vintage style of Patsy Cline and forever under the spell of The Specials, the religiously Fred Perry-clad artist has distilled her myriad influences to create her own style and sense of unstoppable momentum.
She says: “This single is about stamping out our own territory and not answering to anybody, finding out through experience that appearances are deceiving and not everybody is really your friend. Ultimately, it takes time and hurt to realise that you don’t need the people who put you down.”
Heading into the legendary Parr Street Studios, Liverpool with The Coral’s James Skelly in late 2020, Downey’s graduation from a DIY, bedroom musician to working in the same room as some of the great artists she adores has supercharged her confidence.
Her success with online audiences over the last 12 months has come via her own, inspired takes on classics, gently fingerpicking her way through classics including Stone Roses ‘I Am The Resurrection’, The Beatles’ Here Comes The Sun and Dougie Macleans’ 1977 folk hymn to Scotland, Caledonia. Turning rousing anthems into lullabies has, against all odds, proved the secret ingredient to turning Twitter’s baying mob into a litter of puppies, ready to be tickled.
For further information about upcoming releases and future live dates, connect with Rianne online at:
https://twitter.com/riannedowney_
https://www.instagram.com/riannedowney
