Singing of dirt roads, empty towns and absent lovers, Dave Bradley’s debut album reflects a life forged in foreign lands and difficult circumstances. An engineer at the raw edge of the oil industry, Dave has known places beyond the reaches of our common imagination - the forests of Siberia, the loneliness of an oil rig in the Caspian Sea. This has given him a deep empathy with others who find themselves far from the comforts and familiarities of home. The album explores the hopes and fears that a man must confront on his journey alone through life. “It’s about making your way in the world with confidence. Being free and following no-one,” he says of the catchy track Where the Road Follows Me, while in ballads like Dark Days and Back in Your Arms he is equally honest about the doubts and challenges along the way. It is in the title track, Life on a Dirt Road, that Dave encapsulates our time-old yearning to be anywhere but where we are. Evoking the soldier at war who dreams of “home, my