Ferry passengers get first listen of Joshua Henderson’s debut album

Transcript

00:00Joshua Henderson, who is a learning disabled artist, has officially launched his album Songs of Liverpool for Friends.

00:08It's got to be the most craziest thing in rock history.

00:14Ahead of the launch, Mersey Ferry passengers were some of the first to hear the new tracks,

00:19which together form a love letter to Liverpool when they were played during sailings on the river.

00:25So Liverpool is one of my favourite cities because when I wrote this song,

00:31I wrote it for the city because Liverpool is my city and that's where the Scouser is,

00:37and that's what it's all about. It's all about the music.

00:41The 29-year-old, whose musical heroes include The Beatles and U2,

00:45started playing the guitar at the age of nine, inspired by his dad.

00:49He's a great ambassador for Liverpool. I'm so proud of him.

00:55All this is a culmination of everything that Dave's done, everything he's done at Dada,

01:01and as I say, the funding for the album, and as I say, here we are today.

01:06It's just been amazing.

01:08The album of original songs was recorded at the city's Cabin Studio,

01:12with the support of disability and deaf arts organisation Dada,

01:15and with the assistance of a grant from the Youth Music Next Gen Fund.

01:18It feels amazing to look at Josh and to look at how much he's buzzing from hearing his songs played loud,

01:26in the very place that's inspired so much of the lyrics.

01:30If you listen to the album, you'll hear that Josh is very inspired by his environment in Liverpool,

01:37by the Mersey, by looking over at the different parts of the Mersey, the architecture,

01:44and he knows so much about it and he's so passionate about it.

01:47So this really is like the engine of the album in a sense.

01:51Josh has also designed the album's cover artwork based on his own painting of Liverpool.

01:55He spent several years working with the Blue Room at the Blue Coat to develop his fine art talents.