Soaring fiddle, lush cello and haunting lap steel are defining features of Furlined, a Bristol band formed by singer-songwriter Neil Crossley in 2013. Sonically, the band blend Americana and chamber pop but with a distinct English twist and have been likened to artists such as Edwyn Collins and Richard Hawley.

The band’s debut album Love Comes In Canisters was an intimate, lo-fi affair featuring Crossley and cellist Tegan Everett. “Morrissey meets Americana,” concluded Total Guitar, “sublime songs with an irresistible English wit”. The follow-up album Win A Dream Wedding was critically acclaimed. “Songwriter Neil Crossley has one of those winning, strong yet gentle baritones that do male vulnerability beautifully,” concluded Mojo, “a band with distinct aural charms”.

In 2015, Crossley put Furlined on hold when he was invited to join a Walker Brothers-inspired ‘pop croon’ collaboration called International Blue, with producer Tony Visconti and composer Stephen Emmer. The album featured four baritones: Crossley, Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17; Liam McKahey of Cousteau and Midge Ure of Ultravox. Crossley co-wrote two songs on the album. One of these, Sleep For England, was released as a single by Julian Lennon.

On 25 October, 2024, Furlined released their third album Kill Devil Hills, which spans Americana, alt rock/pop and more intimate acoustic-based tracks. The Appalachian swagger of the opening title track sets the tone. Thematically, there’s a strong sense of self-reflection and the passing of time, with Crossley referencing family relationships – his late father on He Drives A Hillman and Dreaming Of Houses, and his daughter on Katherine The Great.

Three of the tracks – Princeton In The Distance, From Montclair To Tupelo and Kill Devil Hills – reflect on time spent living in and around Washington DC, when Crossley was touring back in the 90s. The North Carolina community of Kill Devil Hills, from which the album takes its name, left an enduring impression. “The song, and the album to an extent, is me, decades on, looking back with real fondness, and some regret, on the place, the people and the times.”

The current Furlined line-up is Neil Crossley (vocals/gtr), Tegan Everett (cello), Greg White (drums), Graham J Nicholls (guitar) and Graham Dalzell (bass). The band will be playing UK shows throughout 2025.

PRESS

“A beautifully-realised album with a stand-out title track. As the rockier Americana tracks segue into the folkier, more introverted songs, there is an infectious pop sensibility running throughout. A very fine album indeed.”

Americana UK

“I think I’ve found a musical diamond for you here. The subjects in the songs are as leftfield as I’ve heard in the Americana genre for years, but it works like a charm. Crossley paints wonderfully vivid pictures with his words and I’ve literally fallen in love with the song Two Of A Kind. I’ve been playing it on repeat all afternoon”

The Rocking Magpie

“The opening title track is an absolute scorcher, bursting out of the traps in a welter of fiddle and gee-tar led folk-rock, not unlike vintage Fairport. Maybe it’s country-rock, but who’s counting, as wherever between the two it hits, it hits”

Folking.com