For his second album ‘Not Sleeping’, Niall Kelly has created a recording that continues the legacy of those great ‘live in the studio’ albums such as ‘Ragged Glory’, ‘Nighthawks at the Diner’ and ‘King of America’. In order to catch lightning in a bottle, Niall surrounded himself with some of the finest musicians on London’s blues and roots scene, and restricted them to two or three takes on each song. The resulting album ‘Not Sleeping’ is both intimate and spontaneous, designed to be listened to from start to finish, and the product of a belief that ‘the album’ should not be allowed to fade away. Originally from Derry, Northern Ireland Niall has lived and worked as a professional musician in London for eleven years. Some of the songs on the album date back to his early days in the city, but the majority were written in the period immediately following the birth of his first child. The title ‘Not Sleeping’ is an apt one on several levels; in a literal sense the sleeplessness of a new parent, creatively a desire to move forward and progress, and ideologically a realisation that we live in a world where we cannot afford to close our eyes for too long. Guesting with Niall on three tracks is the legendary pedal steel player BJ Cole, rightly acclaimed for his work with REM and Elton John among many others. He provides a direct link to the era which ‘Not Sleeping’ evokes; a time when the human heartbeats of musicians in a room triumphed over technology. "His uniqueness gives his songs plenty of folk measures that could remind you of the work of troubadours like Townes Van Zandt and strangely, someone like Loudon Wainwright" Daytrotter.