Elvis Presley - Girls! Girls! Girls! (Soundtrack)
Elvis was the reason I started playing guitar; I first got into him when I was 11, after hearing his version of 'Blue Suede Shoes' at school which my teacher showed me a live performance of, I was completely blown away by his superb stage presence and incredible guitar skills. He was a phenomenal performer, he was everything I wanted to be. I never had any of his albums when I was growing up but I did have this film called, 'Girls! Girls! Girls!', which my dad bought me shortly after I became a fan. The film's soundtrack is amazing, 'Because Of Love' is one of my personal favourites, but I also love 'We'll Be Together', his guitar playing on that song is fantastic.
Justin Bieber - My Worlds Acoustic
As much as I hate to admit it today, I can't deny my past, I was a massive Justin Bieber fan when I was younger; in fact, I was obsessed with him. One of the first albums I bought with my own money was 'My Worlds - Collection' - a compilation album that contains three albums in one; his debut EP, 'My World' and album, 'My World 2.0' and the remix album 'My Worlds Acoustic' - which I bought after seeing his film, Never Say Never at the cinema, which my mum took me to see in 3D. I was 12 at the time and had only just recently become a Belieber, after seeing him on The X Factor in 2010 performing 'Somebody To Love' and 'Baby'. Although I'm so big on him as much as I used to be, 'My Worlds Acoustic' is still one of my favourite albums of all time; it was one of the main albums that inspired me to become an acoustic musician. Dan Kanter (Bieber's guitarist) is a great player, him and Bieber were two of my first ever guitar heroes. The first track I listened to from this album was the acoustic version of 'Baby', which I actually prefer to the original.
Cody Simpson - 4U EP
Like Bieber, Cody Simpson was one of my biggest inspirations as a child, both of them were big influences on me and my ambitions of becoming a pop star; in fact, they - along with Tyler Ward - inspired me to start posting covers to YouTube. Cody had some great songs; 'One', 'Perfect', 'iYiY', 'Summertime', 'On My Mind', 'All Day'... those songs take me back, so many great memories! '4U' was a great EP, the acoustic version of 'iYiY' from it is so beautiful, Cody was and still is a great songwriter and a fantastic singer, him and his music will always have a special place in my heart.
Ed Sheeran - +
Loads of acoustic musicians have inspired me as a singer/songwriter but I don't think any of them have inspired me as much as Ed Sheeran. I started playing guitar when I was 12, at that time he was in the charts with his debut single, 'The A Team', I remember seeing him perform it on The Crush and after watching that performance I knew I wanted to become an acoustic musician, I wanted to be like him. '+' is one of my favourite albums of all time, to me it's a masterpiece.
Bruno Mars - Doo-Wops And Hooligans
Like Ed Sheeran, I've been a fan of Bruno Mars since day one too, still love his debut album, 'Doo-Wops And Hooligans', which is also one of my favourite albums of all time. I remember buying it when it first came out, falling in love with it and listening to it over and over again - it was that good! One of my all time favourite tracks is 'Count On Me', I remember first hearing it and thinking to myself; "I've got to learn that on guitar!" I didn't have and wasn't playing a guitar at the time of this album's release so I suppose you could say this is one of the albums that inspired me to start playing.
One Direction - Up All Night
Guilty as charged, I was a big One Direction fan when I was younger, I always wanted to be Niall Horan, boy, could he play guitar. I've been a fan of them ever since day one too; I watched them on The X Factor in 2010, I followed them throughout and after The X Factor, all the way through their career to the departure of Zayn's in 2015, to the break up and I am continuing to follow them all as solo artists right now as we speak. 'Up All Night' was a fantastic album. When I first started playing guitar two of the first songs I learnt were 'What Makes You Beautiful' and 'One Thing'.
Jason Mraz - We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.
Jason Mraz was an early influence of mine, he's a great songwriter; I remember hearing 'I'm Yours' on the radio for the first time ever as a child and falling in love with it almost immediately. It was such a stunning acoustic song; in other words, it was beautiful! Although some of the lyrics are a bit weird; such as the phrase, "I will nibble your ear", it's still a fantastic love song none the less. Once you've heard it will echo in your ears and remain in your heart for the rest of your life. But if you haven't listened to the full album [We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.] you're missing out big time, everything single song on that album is just as beautiful as 'I'm Yours'.
James Blunt - Back To Bedlam
James Blunt was another early influence on me. He's not everyone's cup of tea and I understand why some people don't like him, but I think he's great, I wouldn't say I'm a die hard fan though, but a fan just the same, it depends on my mood. 'You're Beautiful' came out in 2005 when I was six years old and I remember hearing it on the radio when it first came out - of course, I heard the censored version in which the phrase, "Fucking high" was changed to "Flying high" -. The intro riff is amazing and very well written. I don't know how he does it, when I try to play that intro I'm terrible; in fact, despite all my years of my playing guitar and hearing that intro multiple times I still can't play it to save my life. What a great songwriter James Blunt is.
Glee Cast - The Music, The Complete Season Two
I was a massive Glee fan when I was a kid; in fact, both Mr. Croft and I were both massive Glee fans. He was basically a Will Schuester wannabe, hence why he volunteered to do the school's glee club! It was one of my favourite TV shows ever. My first introduction into the show was through Chord Overstreet (Sam Evans)'s cover of Justin Bieber's 'Baby', which I stumbled across on YouTube, it was thanks to that video that I started watching the show. Overstreet's guitar playing is absolutely superb, though that turned out to be no surprise, as I later on discovered he's the son of one of my favourite country songwriters, Paul Overstreet.
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