Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The end of the year is always a time to look backwards, albeit briefly, and to start making those resolutions that you will carry forward into the following year. To bring new habits into your life, to get rid of old temptations and to find new and better ways to in which to use your time…one excellent way it seems would be to purchase an E.P. by Billy Liar and revel in the sheer majesty afforded to just one man. You couldn’t get 2014 off to a better start that immersing yourself for a little while in the music that kicks the old year where it hurts, the marvellous All I’ve Got.

The E.P. might be more on the traditional side of music, three songs in which to get the ears finely tuned to the rampaging guitars and piano, three tracks in which to disregard some of the more outdated resolutions and habits that come around as easily as a March gas bill after a brutally cold winter but for a quarter of an hour you will feel as if your life has suddenly become that little bit more enhanced for the experience.

All I’ve Got showcases the main man completely. The honesty tumbles out of him like a newly installed pontiff sweeping away a corrupt regime, or even more rare, an honest politician doing something for the good of all. It is this honesty, coupled with some great work by the musician’s accompanying him, the superb backing vocals of Stina Marie Claire Tweeddale, Jen Hill on double bass, Fraser Fulton on Cajon and some rather marvellous fiddle by Rory Sutherland on the track Change; that takes this musical experience that makes listening to the E.P. so enjoyable.

Billy Liar may sound like a name that should see the great Tom Courtney’s name thrust in lights above the Liverpool Playhouse but the refreshing decency that the musician holds in abundance is more than Keith Waterhouse could ever bring to the table with his own magnificent creation.

Ian D. Hall