Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
It is a statement of intent, of courage, of absolute faith, to start an album with a cover of one of the most recognisable songs of the 20th Century. To put your own spin on a track that is part of the musical heritage of Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash and Merle Kilgore takes bravery, imagination and a flair that all three American music legends would have not only have recognised as pure but surely would have congratulated for its inventiveness and music Liberty. Not everyone can carry off the song Ring of Fire in such fashion, but then not everybody is When Rivers Meet.
It is the statement, the opening salvo in which the rest of the album hangs its head up with pride and a certain sense of wonderful accomplishment, a statement that becomes a love letter to authenticity and the sentimental journey, that in all the expressions of amore and worship possible to the musician and artist, it only takes sincere homage and reflection to truly grasp how devoted we can be to the role of integrity.
When Rivers Meet, that colliding of nature, the deliberate and leisurely clashing head on with the majestic and swift of thought and temperament, for husband and wife team Grace and Aaron Bond it is the stream of a thought that eventually pours into the oceanic drama.
We are all at Liberty to think what we want, regardless of how difficult it is to actually convey it in a message at times, we can choose to look at music as if it art or decry it as meaningless in the modern age, that all the great songs have been written, all the best melodies hatched and expressed. Yet somehow the music keeps coming, the tunes are born from new experiences and in self -penned tracks such as the Postpone, Greed, Fingertips, Sweet Dreams Are Coming, the aforementioned Ring of Fire and the tremendous version of Mark James’ offering to Elvis in Suspicious Minds; Liberty is what it takes to realise just how important music is.
A comfort in the end to know just how special When Rivers Meet are, that they tackle to possibility of argument and demonstration for declaring a different course for much loved songs and giving the world another reason a tribute to steer down with love.
Ian D. Hall