''Let Them Talk'' is the debut studio album by English actor and musician
Hugh Laurie
James Hugh Calum Laurie (; born 11 June 1959) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and musician. He first gained recognition for his work as one half of the comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry. The two men acted together in a ...
.
The album, which consists of classic
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
songs, was released on 9 May 2011.
Some of the songs are collaborations with well-known artists such as
Tom Jones,
Irma Thomas
Irma Thomas ( Lee; born February 18, 1941) is an American singer from New Orleans. She is known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans".
Thomas is a contemporary of Aretha Franklin and Etta James, but never experienced their level of commercial succ ...
and
Dr. John
Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. (November 20, 1941 – June 6, 2019), better known by his stage name Dr. John, was an American singer and songwriter. His music encompassed New Orleans blues, jazz, funk, and R&B.
Active as a session musician from t ...
.
Laurie plays piano and guitar on the album in addition to providing lead vocals.
Kevin Breit
Kevin Breit is a Canadian musician from Northern Canada. Breit has collaborated in numerous bands, and recorded solo albums on his own Poverty Playlist label, and Stony Plain Records. He is also well known for session work on numerous Grammy awa ...
plays guitar
and
Vincent Henry
Vincent Henry (born November 1953) is an American saxophonist and guitarist who plays jazz and R&B.
Career
Henry was born in New York and grew up in Harlem. He started venturing out to concerts and clubs on his own when he was 14. In the early 1 ...
plays saxophones.
The album was produced by
Joe Henry
Joseph Lee Henry (born December 2, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. He has released 15 studio albums and produced multiple recordings for other artists, including three Grammy Award-winning albums.
Early life
H ...
and features horn arrangements by
Allen Toussaint
Allen Richard Toussaint (; January 14, 1938 – November 10, 2015) was an American musician, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was an influential figure in New Orleans rhythm and blues from the 1950s to the end of the century, descri ...
.
Laurie premiered some of the songs in a small
club in March 2011,
and started officially touring with these materials in April 2011 with two consecutive live concerts in Germany. In the UK, he performed at the
Union Chapel in London,
at the
Cheltenham Jazz Festival
Cheltenham Jazz Festival is one of the UK's leading jazz festivals, and is part of Cheltenham Festivals' annual festival season, also including the Science, Music and Literature Festivals in Cheltenham Spa.
Introduction and history
The Chelt ...
,
Warwick Arts Centre
Warwick Arts Centre is a multi-venue arts complex at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England. It attracts around 300,000 visitors a year to over 3,000 individual events embracing all types of theatre and performance, contemporary and cl ...
in
Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...
, and at Manchester's
Royal Northern College of Music
The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) is a conservatoire located in Manchester, England. It is one of four conservatoires associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. In addition to being a centre of music education ...
. Laurie also made several television appearances, including
BBC2
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
programmes ''
The Graham Norton Show
''The Graham Norton Show'' is a British comedy chat show presented by Graham Norton. It was initially broadcast on BBC Two, from 22 February 2007, before moving to BBC One in October 2009. It currently airs on Friday evenings, with Norton s ...
'' and ''
Later... with Jools Holland'', and was interviewed on
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...
's ''
Chris Evans Breakfast Show
''The Chris Evans Breakfast Show'' (currently referred to on-air due to sponsorship reasons as ''The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky'') is the name given to two versions of a radio programme hosted by broadcaster Chris Evans in the United K ...
''.
On 15 May 2011, Laurie appeared in the UK
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
series ''
Perspectives'', explaining his love for the music of New Orleans and playing music from the album, at studios and live venues in the city of
itself.
A special edition of the album, containing three more songs, was released on 15 May 2011.
A second blues album, named ''
Didn't It Rain
"Didn't It Rain", sometimes given as "Oh, Didn't It Rain", is a spiritual about Noah's flood. In 1919 it appeared as sheet music in an arrangement for voice and piano by Henry Thacker Burleigh (1866–1949).
Modern versions
* The Galilee Sing ...
'', was released on 6 May 2013.
Critical reception
The album received favourable reviews, and holds a
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
score of 61 out of 100, based on 9 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. It also received a positive review in ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
''.
Chart performance
''Let Them Talk'' was the biggest-selling blues album of 2011 in the UK, with sales of 192,000 copies.
Track listing
Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Release history
References
External links
Promotional videoo
Laurie's official YouTube channel
{{Authority control
2011 debut albums
Hugh Laurie albums
Albums produced by Joe Henry
Warner Records albums