Ned Baulderstone – ‘Gliding Through’
The simplicity of Ned Baulderstone’s debut LP gives a reliable voice to our anxiety – a sense of familiarity that makes us feel seen.
Words by Jack Paech // Photo by Olivia Stone
On February 14, 2025, I saw Ned Baulderstone perform solo in the Crown & Anchor front bar to an enraptured crowd of friends and friends soon-to-be. Almost two months later, on April 2, his debut solo record, Gliding Through, was released, and I sat down in my backyard, headphones on, to listen.
These two dates are significant because, as I made my way through the tracklist, I was struck by how vividly I remembered the songs from when Baulderstone had performed them just 47 days earlier.
The reason Gliding Through is so potent is its unwavering sincerity. The themes here range from a reverence for Indigenous culture (‘Ngaitalya’); to how love manifests in the everyday (‘My Boots’); to the intrinsic and unbreakable link between art and fulfillment. Baulderstone approaches these topics with a gentle earnestness that defines his music as a means of grounding the existential. It is, for all intents and purposes, ‘Australiana’: dusty country-folk music that is firmly situated in time and space to convey both a sense of scale and intimacy in the same breath.
The opening lines of ‘When You’ve Got A Guitar’ are perhaps the clearest example. In it, Baulderstone sings “I picked up this sax one day in ’93, and every show since then, I’ve taken it with me”, which clearly signifies the chronology of the narrative at the same time as it conveys its emotional core. His songs are rooted so firmly in place by their subjects that the listener remembers the music as they do a person; on first listen, I found myself thinking, “Oh yeah, this is the one about the previous owner of Ned’s guitar”.
This earnest, truthful storytelling is the record’s most crucial element, and thankfully it’s aided by Baulderstone’s charming personality and dynamic performance. His guitar playing is this record’s cornerstone, the light shining through its cracks. Everywhere, the clarity and vitality of his playing reinforces the living, breathing aspect of his compositions. His percussive strumming and open chord voicings lift – and are in turn lifted by – some absolutely stunning guest performances (such as Clara Gillam Grant on cello and Ella Ion on backing vocals), but it is Baulderstone himself that so clearly holds everything together.
Baulderstone stands impressively tall across his debut album because his passion for music and storytelling makes maintaining his posture such a simple task. When metaphors appear on Gliding Through, their meaning within the context of the song is immediately apparent. The titular glue in ‘Glue’, for example, obviously doesn’t need an explanation – it is self-evident to give the listener easy access to the song’s meaning. Through this, it effectively argues for simplicity as a tool for establishing a connection with the listener.
Our hands are being held during Gliding Through, but not in a way that insults our intelligence. Rather, it’s a guided tour through life’s universal truths. Its simplicity gives a reliable voice to our anxiety – a sense of familiarity that makes us feel seen. This very closeness is the crux of Baulderstone’s work. With it, he achieves something not many artists do: the rare distinction of creating an album that listens to us as much as we listen to it.
Listen to Ned Baulderstone’s Gliding Through on streaming platforms now, and follow his journey on socials here.
