26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
This Daring Light finally sees day after Lanarkshire record label owner hears Jack's bad luck story
The album was set to be released 10 years ago but the American company went bust days before
Singer-songwriter Jack Henderson's album looked destined never to see the light of day after the American record company releasing it went bust a week before.
That was 10 years ago, but in stepped Lanarkshire record label owner Garry John Kane recently and the album, This Daring Light, was finally released last week.
It may seem as if there's a pattern building here as the last album release on the Coatbridge man's Button Up was also a decade in the making.
But the similarities between the style of Scottish singer-songwriter Jack Henderson's long-awaited 'first' album and the previous Button Up release, Lanarkshire band Tijuana Bibles' Free Milk, end there.
This Daring Light was recorded and mixed in New Jersey and mastered at Sterling Sound in New York. It was due to be released on Convent Records and Jack had already played a launch gig for the album.
Garry John said: 'I heard Jack playing support at a gig last year and I thought he sounded a bit like Tom Waites. We got talking and he seemed like a nice guy.
"He told me the story and how it had all been going well with the American label and then they went bust. He had promo CDs and sent me the album. I listened to it and really liked it, even though it wasn't something I'd normally bring out. It's a sort of Americana sound, with really smart lyrics.
'As it was 10 years ago it's now had a little remastering in Scotland from Mattie Foulds at Caribou Recording, and we've redone the cover. There are all these great musicians on it and it was produced by Tony Shanahan. It seemed such a waste for it not to be released, so here we are.'
Jack was born in Dunfermline but his Glaswegian dad was in the navy and they moved south when he was three years old. He moved to the United States where he lived for years but now lives in Glasgow.
He's shared a stage with many accomplished musicians including Patti Smith in 2019 when she performed at Kelvingrove Bandstand.
He's delighted that the album has now been released on Button Up Records and somewhat bizarrely the door is open for a second album release, as Convent Records had paid a deposit for a follow-up prior to going bust.
He said: 'I wanted to get it out at some point but I wanted it to be worthwhile rather than just pushing it out there into the ether and disappearing. It's worth a bit more than that.
'So when Garry came along I thought, 'great man'. I don't expect it to change the world but it's out there now.
'I'm aware that some people describe it as Americana, I don't try to be Americana but I did live and work there and some of my greatest influences come from there.
'When you're writing a song you don't really think to yourself, what genre am I? You just write it. It was recorded and produced in New York so undoubtedly it has something of that sound.
'When it came together the record company paid a deposit towards the follow-up and that album has yet to be made, with the same producer. I'm loathe to go back to the States right now so we're talking about maybe doing it in Ireland. In the interim I made a record completely by myself which came out during lockdown.
'I'm still active, writing, playing and I'm producing a record for someone else just now.'
*Don't miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.
