Dan Raza unveils his new album '˜Two'

A Leighton singer-songwriter has joined up with elite names from the music scene for his '¨hotly-awaited second album which was released this week.

Dan Raza’s pithily-titled new LP ‘Two’ features the likes of BJ Cole (Dolly Parton, Bert Jansch), Frank Mead (Albert King, Paul McCartney), and the members of Ronnie Lane’s band Slim Chance.

And the result is a stunning 12-track self-produced work, that takes his career to a new level.

Dan told the LBO: “I’ve modelled it on albums like The Band by The Band and Moondance by Van Morrison.

“One of the things I’m most proud of is how it all works together and stands up as a single piece of work.

“Listening back to this album, hearing every track together, and the reception it’s had so far, that’s been really satisfying.”

Dan, who grew up in Linslade and is a former student at Cedars Upper School, still has family living in both Linslade and Leighton Buzzard.

He was also the subject of a documentary film Can’t Go Back, which was directed by his former schoolfriend James Smith.

And the Leighton links stretch further on to Dan’s works too.

He said: “On Two I’ve got a mixture of my touring band and Slim Chance and BJ. And there’s also some guitar from Dave Nichols who was at Cedars and in our local band The Sunbirds.”

While Dan is now based in London he is still a regular visitor to Bedfordshire when not touring on both sides of the Atlantic, plus supporting the likes of Badly Drawn Boy, Joan Armatrading and Slaid Cleaves.

And tracks from Two have been feted both at home and abroad, with tracks being made Song Of The Week by the likes of Classic Rock and on national radio stations in the UK and US.

Two is available at www.danraza.com/store and via iTunes, Spotify and CDBaby.