Chris T-T

From: Brighton

Profile: A A Milne is best known for penning arguably the two greatest books in the English language - Winnie The Pooh and The House At Pooh Corner.

But as any student of truly great literature knows the Sussex resident also penned two collections of poems for children, When We Were Very Young from 1924 and 1926's Now We Are Six.

And it is these poetry collections which inspired Brighton singer-songwriter Chris T-T's 2011 Edinburgh Free Fringe show Disobedience.

Best known for his mix of political protest and heartfelt examinations of modern life on albums including Nine Red Songs, Capital and most recently Love Is Not Rescue, the show was something of a departure for T-T.

It grew from a Christmas EP he recorded for his friend Jim Bob, of Carter USM, and the positive reaction to Milne's Market Square as featured on Love Is Not Rescue.

This collection, which is set to acoustic guitar and piano, is bookended by his version of Halfway Down, dispelling memories of Kermit's little nephew Robin in The Muppets sat on the stairs.

It also features favourites including The King's Breakfast - the story of a king's anguish after being denied butter for his bread; the tale of an imaginary friend Binker; and Waiting At The Window - describing a race between two raindrops.

"I have always found the poems powerfully sincere and read them as a lonely damaged guy trying to connect to (empathise with) his lonely only son," says T-T.

"Milne ‘gets’ childhood so incredibly well because he taps into the failure to understand. Re-reading them to make Disobedience into a show only emphasised that feeling for me."

The show was recorded in London's One Cat Studio in October and has been released as the album Disobedience, which is currently available from T-T's website.

Disobedience (right click on the track to download, left click to stream)

Website: christt.com/

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Email: chris@christt.com