+ Emily Barker

Since the mid-late 1990s, Kenny Anderson’s DIY pop alter-ego King Creosote has released over 100 records (at a relatively conservative guess), and his songs have been covered and performed by artists including Simple Minds and Patti Smith.

Many of his LPs, EPs and CDRs were self-released via Anderson’s homegrown Fife imprint, Fence-amid major label dalliances (2005’s KC Rules OK and 2007’s Bombshell on Warners), and a long-standing kinship with Domino Records, whose KC dispatches include Kenny and Beth’s Musakal Boat Rides (2003), the Mercury Prize-shortlisted Jon Hopkins union Diamond Mine (2011), and 2014’s From Scotland With Love, which soundtracked the award-winning film of the same name.

Anderson’s latest King Creosote outing is I, Des, an album that characteristically digs deep into his previous work – revisiting and recycling lyrics, home-made tapes, half-spun songs- and continues his quest to navigate mortality, ardour, stormy waters, the moon in the sky, and the East Neuk of Fife.

I, Des is a collaboration with multi-instrumentalist and co-producer Derek O’Neill, aka Des Lawson (2016’s
Astronaut Meets Appleman, From Scotland With Love), which upholds an enduring tradition: Anderson has long had an affinity for joining forces with other musicians, including his 90s bluegrass punk rabbles the Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra and Khartoum Heroes; insurgent pop cabal The Fence Collective (James Yorkston, KT Tunstall, HMS Ginafore, The Pictish Trail); and indie-folk supergroup the Burns Unit (Emma Pollock, Karine Polwart, Sushil Dade).

He’s equally commanding whether playing live to capacity crowds at London’s Barbican, Edinburgh’s Usher Hall and Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, or serenading fans in the fishing pubs and pottery shops of Crail and Anstruther; whether playing guitar, banjo, accordion, modular synths or wine glass drones. The common threads are KC’s singular voice, and his roguish, roving, ever-evolving, gorgeous songs in the key of Fife.

Venue: Exeter Phoenix, Auditorium

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