Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The sound once came out of the cold swamps, the back beat slow and mystical…or that’s as close an analogy as you would find being perpetrated as a sizeable truth from out of the mind of Jim Morrison. If anything Southern Rock came from the fiery pits of Hell, where the Devil sang with charm and the band were always on fire, the taste in the air was like fine bourbon tickling the throat and that mystical sound, it was there but it pulsed with so much life that it sired grandchildren before each day was over.
Christopher Shayne takes that incredible Southern Rock virtue, the experience of the game and the menace of a guitar with its own personality and overwhelming musical argument and brings about the new album of songs, Turning Stones, that capture the moment and the fury in a combined sweat and exertion feel that is both enormously entertaining and heart stopping cool.
Like the feel of gravel under ones feet, the smoothness of the stones surprisingly pleasant and good for the soul, to feel grounded whilst bat the same time know that Time has worn these pebbles to the point where you can appreciate the worn down beauty, Turning Stones is an album full of observation of life, the Southern anxiety perhaps showing through but also the pride in the music being a blast, an avalanche of tumbling truths which revel in the glory of being allowed to live.
In tracks such as Rock Show, When I Come Down, Rolling Bones, Outcha Mind and Black Mariah, the cool Southern winds mix freely with the ferocity of the storm dwelling at the heart of Christopher Shayne. The well versed and sincere Southern hospitality which is captured by producer Chuck Alkazian is unruly and wild, yet throughout order reigns and is like a volcano being treated as a god, the destruction wrought is only the precursor to the lush fields and fertile lands that inevitably follow.
Turning Stones is album that sits in great company, the influences heard not to be taken lightly and it is a cruel wind that would ever stop this album from being enjoyed as it is fully meant to be.
Ian D. Hall