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Sunjay - New Album Tour - Saturday 14th December 2024

Sunjay appears at St. George's Hall with special guests as part of his UK tour marking the release of his new album.

I’m Just Like You wasn’t originally intended for commercial release – it was recorded in homage as an 80th Birthday present for Chris Smither. “I was inspired by Chris from an early age” muses Sunjay. “The first time I watched him on YouTube at the age of 16 (after discovering him via a Bonnie Raitt album) I was transfixed. I remember saying to myself – that’s EXACTLY what I want to do. I want to play that style of guitar, sing with that gravelly whiskey soaked voice and write these kinds of thought provoking, intelligent lyrics. AND I want that hairstyle! Then I went and told everyone I knew that I’d found my hero… Soon after, I went to see Chris perform at The Luminaire in London. By chance I happened to be staying in the same place as Chris and ran into him at the bar. We spent some time talking and the next day played a guitar together, a testimony to Chris’ natural generous nature. As you can imagine – having met, watched live and played guitar with one of my heroes, I went home in a pretty gleeful state! The next time I saw Chris live, (reminiscent of his experience with Eric Von Schmidt) he asked the venue promoter if I could do three songs to open up the show. Since then I’ve opened up for Chris several times and had the pleasure of getting to know him.

Before discovering Chris, I was playing a lot of 1960’s folky singer/songwriter stuff and the thought of writing songs seemed like something only famous people could do. Occasionally they’d throw a blues tune into their sets and I’d just devour those licks. But here was a guy who was writing deep lyrics, with blues based guitar work – as standard. Every track I listened to inspired me more and more, and that’s why I wanted to record this album. All of the songs here are Chris Smither originals.”

A tribute record is often a complex thing to approach and Sunjay’s keen to point out that the collection of 15 Chris Smither songs are “all faithful representations of the originals and I’ve specifically kept the guitar parts the same as Chris’ original recordings, adding my flavour with the arrangements and production (apart from one line I changed in Leave The Light On – you’ll understand why when you get there). I thought this would be a really nice little birthday present/tribute but somewhere along the way, I decided I wanted people to hear it and so I’m Just Like You is released 11th November 2024, Chris’ 80th Birthday.”