Charlie Dore is one of the UK’s most respected songwriters. Initially a highly original solo artist (her self-written single Pilot Of The Airwaves reached number 13 on the Billboard chart back in 1980), she went on to ply her gifts for inspired melodies, big harmonies and clever, quietly subversive lyrics in the wider marketplace, and with great success: Tina Turner, Celine Dion, George Harrison, Lisa Stansfield, UB40, Jimmy Nail, Sheena Easton and Hayley Westenra are just a handful of the diverse artists to have covered her songs. Charlie Dore All of which has been fine and dandy for Celine et al, for their fans and, indeed, for Charlie and her publishing company, but, well ... What about her own fans, those entranced by the 1979 debut album Where To Now? or its successor of two years later, Listen? There's been precious little to sustain them in the interim. In fact, nothing other than 1995's third solo album, Things Change. Charlie Dore From the moment you pick up Sleep All Day and Other Stories, you're aware you're handling something conceived outside of all current marketplace and commercial concerns. And when you hear Charlie's crystalline vocals and cool, considered tone, you're left in no doubt at all that the 10-song collection has been a labour of love, made without compromise or concession. Charlie Dore "If I had to place it within a genre, I suppose I'd have to say it's alternative country-folk, but with Americana as a cousin." she says. "I really like the simple, straightforward country thing, but I can't deny that I'm a total Beatles child too, having grown up with them and loving them still today." Charlie Dore So, if you can imagine what might happen if you shut the McGarrigle Sisters in a room with Gillian Welch and made them listen to Lennon and McCartney all day ... This album might just possibly be the result. Charlie Dore In terms of mood, its songs are by turns introspective, acerbic, rueful, even gently malevolent (and more besides), prompting Charlie to laugh at the notion that listeners might imagine the lyrics are taken straight from her bedside diary. Charlie Dore "Am I feeling OK?" she asks, in anticipation of such a reaction. "Yes, thank you, I'm very OK. But I can understand what might prompt the question. Some of the lines here could certainly make you wonder." Charlie Dore Why then has she opened up to such an extent, after years of putting less revealing words in other artists' mouths? Charlie Dore "For the first time in a long while, I was writing with no-one but myself in mind. I felt freed up to be as dark as ever I wanted - something that's not really appropriate when you're working as a pen for hire," she judges. "I think that even in extremely good, technically faultless pop songs, you can still trace the footsteps of the professional songwriter, identifying those little tricks and slick moves that all of us rely on. Charlie Dore "But that just wasn't appropriate here. What I wanted to create instead was an album that was truly personal, and which spoke honestly and from the heart - my heart. I'm not saying every single lyric reflects a real event in my life but certainly each song is definitely coloured by my own experiences. You can't achieve that with a rhyming dictionary and a bunch of pretty phrases." Charlie Dore Not that Charlie has become disenchanted with the business of commercial songwriting. Charlie Dore "I still enjoy the process massively," she says, "although I'll admit the fact that the star-maker aspect at the other end of it has become so formulaic is just a little depressing these days." Charlie Dore But being so successful at her 'day job', meant that it was hard to put aside the time even to think about putting together this, her first collection of original, self-performed material in eight years. Charlie Dore "To take myself seriously and not keep shunting this back in favour of other deadlines, I ended up setting aside two days a week just for me. By treating this as if it were one moreamong the various projects that I was working on, it finally started to come together." Charlie Dore There was, she admits, a lovely freedom to having no-one (A%26R man, manager, artist, whoever) to please but herself. Charlie Dore "When your bread and butter is writing songs for other people, you get used to contorting yourself into all sorts of shapes to please your customers. It's a bit like being a bespoke tailor, I imagine. You run up stuff in the style they're looking for, trying to be adaptable, trying to make sure it suits. And while I'm not presuming to naturally inhabit the same heady heights as a Joni Mitchell or Paul Simon, you generally have to keep things simple. I can't tell you the number of times I've got into trouble for doing something a bit too smart-arse or oblique. "Not sure I get that ..." has been said to me more than once. "Couldn't you just make it more direct and easier-to-grasp?" Charlie Dore "Meanwhile, I'd be listening to a lot of the more thoughtful stuff being played on the radio and would think, 'Hang on!, this is the kind of thing I used to do. Here I am, racing around, trying to keep tabs on whatever's the current loop, and yet there are all these other people inhabiting what used to be my own natural territory ... and getting an audience too." But written simply and organically with her long-time collaborator and musical partner, Julian Littman, the songs on 'Sleep All Day and Other Stories' really don't sound quite like anything, or anyone, else. So what are they about? Charlie smiles, and reaches to take a small book from her bag. "I wrote some notes a while back analysing what was the subject-matter of the songs I'd collected together so far, and I can read from them to you," she offers. "Let's see ... 'Vodka': obsession/ abandonment. 'Sleep All Day': wistful take on abandonment and denial. 'Last Night You Said': ironic slant on open relationship from wounded party's point of view. 'Learning To Breathe': wistful optimism. 'Dirt Makes Excellent Toothpaste: world-weary, ironic rant. 'Cartoon': upbeat! yes! 'Left': bereavement. 'Disremember Me': end of relationship, again!, oh dear!" Charlie Dore And so on and so on ... Not songs likely to find their way onto the next Britney or Christina album, then. But therein lies their charm and quiet, insinuating appeal. Charlie Dore What next for Charlie? Well, the work of the successful incidental music partnership of Dore %26 Littman (they composed for two series of the highly popular, Scottish-based '2000 Acres of Sky'), will be heard again soon in another BBC TV drama, 'Roman Road', starring Alan Davies and John Gordon Sinclair. Charlie Dore And she continues to perform occasionally and schedules-permitting with the five-person comedy collective, 'The Hurricane Club' and has recently made with them a seven-minute film short that will be shown on the festival circuit next year. Charlie Dore Then, of course, the phone continues to ring with requests that she turn her more commercial-minded talents to writing new material for this or that pop act, not just in the UK but all over Europe and North America. She is, in short, a very busy, motivated and in-demand talent. But if you'd like reminding of what a very good singer-songwriter she was and still is - or, indeed, if you'd like to discover that fact for the very first time - listen to this new and long-awaited CD. It is quietly, compellingly lovely. Charlie Dore