Artist of the Week - Nick Drake

This week it an artist who is sadly no longer with us and is one of many lost talents. The artist in question is Nike Drake who died at the age of twenty six at his own hand by means of overdose or various pills. Thankfully he left something of himself behind for us all to appreciate and remember him by.

I was introduced to his music some years ago and really came to love his music despite the rather depressive nature of his work a times. My love comes for the fact that his music is so real and many of us in life have those feeling he he handles so well in his songs. Ideally we would have happy lives but that is never the case we all lose love ones during or lives or other things happen that drive us down and having music you can connect to is all so important. But, you don't have to be down to listen to his music it stands on it's own and you can appreciate the skill and artistry of his works.

Nick Drake was born on the 19th June 1948 to English family living at the time in Rangoon in Burma. He was singer-songwriter and musician and is best known for his somber music and lyrics and there is a sense of foreboding and fatalism in his music. Like many children from upper class families at the time he went to boarding school and later went on to study at Fitzwilliam College at the University of Cambridge. However before he went to Cambridge he spent some time in France where he learned to play the guitar, his primary instrument, by busking to earn extra money. Drake suffered from depression and insomnia throughout his life, and these topics were often reflected in his lyrics. During his lifetime he failed to find a wide audience for his music and although he recored a number albums they didn't do well in terms of sales. It wasn't until after his death on 25th November 1974 when he died from an overdose of amitriptyline that people slowly started to recognise his work. Since then has he gradually become one of the most influential English singer-songwriters of the last 50 years.

I hope you enjoy listening his music if you have never heard it before don't let it somber nature put you off. If you listen to his music you can see how he has influenced other artists including Kate Bush and Paul Weller. He is well worth a listen and I'm glad I was introduced to him.