Keith Sadler recalls 'darkest days' before busking in Bury St Edmunds and releasing debut album Song

Six years ago music was the saviour for Keith Sadler when he hit rock bottom after illness forced him to leave teaching.

The 37-year-old has since become a familiar face in Bury St Edmunds, with his busking outside Adnams winning many shoppers over to his talent for alternative folk.

Now the singer-songwriter, who lives in Needham Market, is to release his first album Song but says it was nearly all so different.

“I was depressed and suicidal, it was a terrible time,” Keith told the Bury Free Press last week about his darkest days from 2010 to 2013.

“I was teaching in Hull, where I lived with my wife Anna, when the illness started. I thought I had a bad cold but it got worse and worse until I was bed-bound. I could not go to work, and I was trying, but I was too ill. We were already moving back to where I’m from near Ipswich and I had a new job. But I only lasted half a term there.”

This was at the end of 2009. He had been diagnosed with ME (chronic fatigue syndrome) and said the final straw was a minor transient ischemic attack – often considered to be like a mini stroke. He has since been diagnosed with bipolar (2) disorder and complex PTSD.

Music for Keith had previously been writing and performing worship songs – something he had moved away from. But his life changed when Anna encouraged him to try out an open mic night in Ipswich in 2013. And through greater understanding of managing his condition he began busking, but making an album was a new venture. “I was contacted by the wonderful guys at GingerDog records, a label based near Stowmarket,” he said. “I was not sure about how my health would hold up as bands usually do an album in a short space of time. But we did it over lots of phases and the guys were understanding.

“These are all songs I have been playing while busking, some I play every time I go out so a lot of people will have heard them!”

Song will be released on March 29, through iTunes, Spotify and on CDs which can be bought on his website: www.keithsadlermusic.com