Bobby Long‘s debut album, ‘A Winter Tale’, is something that I stumbled across after listening to his Daytrotter Session from late 2010 and wanted to hear more. Long, a 24-year-old British singer/songwriter, has brought the fire on his debut studio album. It is chock full of powerful chords, dynamic vocals and moving lyrics which give his ballads something that a lot of American folk seems to have been missing recently. I think that this is one of the great albums so far in 2011.

I guess that it is fitting that the first post of the newly revived New American Noise isn’t about an American artist. However, Long is able to capture the Americana sound as well as some of my favorite troubadours like Kristian Matsson (a.k.a. The Tallest Man on Earth) and Anders Osborne…neither of whom are American. Long hit the mainstream when he wrote a song, “Let Me Sign”, that Robert Pattinson sang in Twilight but don’t let that deter you from checking out this album. It is really effin’ good. Stop by your local record store and scoop it up on vinyl or compact disc as soon as you can.

Here is a stream of the ‘A Winter Tale’ in its entirety with individual song intros by Bobby Long:

Long has been tearing through mid-sized venues on his US tour playing night after night before he heads out on his Australian and European tours in April. If you have the chance to catch one of these shows, you should definitely do it while the tickets to his shows aren’t that expensive ($8 – $15). I have the feeling that they are only going to be getting pricier as more people begin to realize how talented this guy is.

Check out the video below of him covering Hank Williams’ “They’ll Never Take Her Love From Me” from ATO Records: