Patience Is the Heart Of 'A Winter Tale'

While Bobby Long was at university in London, he fell in with a group of musicians that included Robert Pattinson, future star of the "Twilight" films. "Let Me Sign," a song Mr. Long co-wrote and said he performed only once in public, was sung by Mr. Pattinson in the first "Twilight" installment with all the intensity of Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks."

There are worse ways to launch your career, but Mr. Long all but disavows the song. "It's not really who I am and what I'm doing now," he said when we met one recent frigid morning at the Cake Shop, a club here on the Lower East Side a short walk from his apartment.

Now 24 years old and attractive in that carefully tousled way, Mr. Long has a level of natural charisma he augments with a drive toward his vision of success. With his mind on the long term, he isn't looking for the quickest way to his goal. On Tuesday, Mr. Long releases "A Winter Tale" (ATO), a spirited, thoroughly enjoyable folk-blues collection featuring his gritty singing and well-crafted songs. Though it has more than enough spark to find an audience, the album announces that a promising talent has arrived and suggests he will have much more to say.

Taught the rudiments of folk and blues guitar by his father, Mr. Long cut his teeth at countless "open-mic" nights in London. Those events could be a drag, he recalled; since anyone could take the stage and play a tune, the environment was polluted with people who were more interested in applause than artistry and improvement.



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Thanks to WSJ.com via Twilightish via @PattinsonStew