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To celebrate World Piano Day (March 29th), acclaimed Welsh musician Georgia Ruth is releasing a new EP today. Cooler Head is a companion piece to her celebrated 2024 album Cool Head, a KLOF Featured Album of the Month in June last year.
An awful lot has happened in Georgia Ruth’s personal life and in the world at large since her debut eleven years ago, but what hasn’t changed is her enviable gift for creating gorgeous, open-hearted folk songs full of intelligence, invention and emotional weight. Cool Head is an album with the feel of an instant classic about it, and is her strongest offering yet.
Thomas Blake, KLOF Mag
Her new EP, Cooler Head, features four beautifully stripped-back piano versions of songs from the original record, peeling back the layers to reveal the raw emotional core of each song and showcasing Georgia’s distinctive voice and evocative songwriting in their purest form. The result is an intimate, spellbinding listening experience, with her delicate vocals and expressive piano arrangements taking centre stage.
To celebrate the release, Georgia has written an exclusive Track-by-Track guide for KLOF Mag, which you can read alongside a full video of her performing and talking about the tracks.
The EP will be available digitally and 200 signed CDs will be available exclusively from Georgia’s website and during her tour in May (dates below).
Cooler Head
Stream ‘Cooler Head’ | Order the CD
Video by Daf Hughes
“It was a really interesting experience, going back into the same studio where we made the album, to re-interpret those songs by myself,” she says. “I deliberately didn’t rehearse beforehand, I was intrigued to see what would happen if I just sat at the piano, and let the songs dictate how they wanted to be played. Time had passed since the original sessions, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a different energy in the room, and in the songs – a sense of having come out the other side, a little different! It made sense to call this Cooler Head.”
Track-by-Track (by Georgia Ruth)
The Sain piano (a Yamaha C7, I checked!) is gorgeous, full of character, and although it features sporadically on the original album, it was never centre stage. I thought it’d be nice to change that!
The fact that these are completely live recordings means that the songs on the EP have an immediacy, a vulnerability to them – they’re flawed, and I like that about them. I guess it’s more like going to a gig – the version you get today is a different version to the one you might get tomorrow. It’s lovely also to think that my daughter, Alma – now 8 weeks old – was ‘present’ during this session. I dedicate the whole session to her!
Driving Dreams
If the whole Cool Head album was imagined as a drive through the night into morning, then this was the theme song. Having spent most of my adult life trying (and failing) to drive, this song is a culmination of the fantasy and fears presented by the open road. I wanted it to sound completely wide-screen, with a little nod to Glen Campbell – my eldest son’s favourite singer!
Without the strings and the band, though, I think the song becomes something quite different. Especially because, in the time since the album came out, I’ve passed my driving test! This recording session was one of the first long drives I had after passing, so the whole thing felt very poignant. It’s like I’ve gone through the looking glass… The song can be taken however you like – maybe it’s become more about that general need for escape every now and again – the idea of reinvention, of going beyond ourselves, even for a little bit.
Would It Kill You To Ask
A song about how childhood friendships can sometimes struggle to survive the challenges of adulthood. Living back in the town where I grew up, there was a sadness which came with realising that busy lives often mean that you can feel temporarily estranged from the people you know best of all. “Life comes at you fast when you’re living in the past; and I fear the past’s the only thing we’ve got.”
Whilst the original is quite lo-fi, with its drum machine, the piano version of the song allowed me to find something new in the words. It has a hopefulness that didn’t exist as clearly in the original album track, I think. Because I believe that life is cyclical, too. We make our way back to each other when the time is right!
Dim
The piano version of this song is so much jauntier: maybe lightening the emotional load of the original, which – although short and sweet – is one of the heaviest songs on the album. The main lyric roughly translates as “it’s easy sometimes, sometimes it’s not.” I imagined it as the bar-room version. It’s quite a strange little piano part, actually, now that I listen back to it. Who knows where that came from!
Bright Morning Stars
I decided to do this one completely instrumental, without the words. It’s such a beautiful melody. Appalachian folk songs are invariably gorgeous, and I’d always wondered what it would sound like on piano. This is all improvised. It’s my favourite track on the EP, for sure. (Although I do love the album version – Euros Childs’ harmony is magical.)
Live Dates – May 2025
Wed, MAY 14 – The Pound Arts Centre, Corsham
Thu, MAY 15 – St Pancras Old Church, London
Fri, MAY 16 – The Met, Bury
Sat, MAY 17 – The Hive, Shrewsbury
Sun, MAY 18 – St Mary’s Creative Space, Chester
Website: https://georgiaruth.co.uk/
Read our review of Cool Head:
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