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L.A. Salami (UK)
Lookman Adenkule Salami, a songwriter from London, grew up in foster care, and besides his classmates making many jokes about his surname, his family lived in pretty modest conditions. He got his first guitar at the age of twenty-one. He started composing his own songs under the influence of Bob Dylan and he first brought attention to himself as a support for several of his colleagues in 2012. A year later, he debuted with EP named Another Shade of Blue, which got a credit for emotional storytelling comparable to Joni Mitchell or Paul Simon, and especially for his distinctive and sovereign vocals. His debut album, Dancing With Bad Grammar, which eventually came out in 2016, was recorded with a band and a producer Matt Ingram, standing behind the successes of Tom Odell. The album offers an energetic blues-rock sound, and L.A. Salami has attracted with combining retro sound and urgent expression in a postmodern way, “just as effective as a rap of hip-hopers.