Hold On Tight/Let Me Know by Ed Prosek (Single)

Ed Prosek: dreaming of California?

Brighton-based indie folkster Ed Prosek comes up trumps with ‘Hold On Tight/Let Me Know’, referencing folk acts old and new

wo years ago, 22-year-old Californian indie-folk songwriter Ed Prosek released his debut EP California to warm appraise, with his songs featuring in adverts and garnering over 40,000 views on YouTube. Now, having upped sticks and journeyed across the pond, he returns with the affecting single Hold On Tight/Let Me Know.

Hold On Tight opens with the short of chugging, steam train rhythm that Johnny Cash built a whole career on. Unlike Cash, though, Prosek’s train is headed under leafy viaducts and not towards the centre of a desert hell. Laced with a little of Mumford & Sons’ singalong appeal, it’s a folky number that’s both faithful and deferent to its peers. Let Me Know though is the real highlight. Opening with some beautiful fingerpicking that’s positioned in-between Nick Drake and Benjamin Francis Leftwich – whose fragile vocal Prosek shares – it’s a track brings a little more delicacy to the fray, without losing the anthemic quality of its predecessor.

The post-Mumford & Sons market is a tough nut to crack, with any folky that has designs on success arrowing towards the London four-piece’s sound. On Hold On Tight/Let Me Know Ed Prosek shows that he’s not afraid to take note of this, but that he also knows what’s most important is to be yourself.

Verdict: An indie-folk number that’s both familiar and individual

Damien Girling

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