Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

With the long winter nights approaching quicker than Mo Farrah taking on a 1500 metre race just for the sheer enjoyment of it, the time spent warding off the British cold and thoughts of dark dreary nights are always in the thoughts of those who want good music to take them away from the impending and incessant wind and rain. In Rev Ferriday &The Longdogs’s latest release Nine Beats, there is another reason to sit in front of the fire, take in some exquisite and thumping music and revel in the thoughts that the clocks will soon go forward again.

The Blues Rev Ferriday, Owen Bray and Neil Sadler may be playing, however in terms of music there is absolutely no need to ever succumb to the grainy bleak days and moods as the threesome strike a rich vein of music that just doesn’t stand out, it beats the living daylights out of the feeling of despair and unfettered despondency.

The sound the band creates will make the listener long for the days of watching music in the saloons and bars that run through America’s deep south and yet with the touch of elegance that is afforded by the band’s British disposition, there is the feel of pure British humour running through the imagination, Blues it may be but it is the U.K. Blues style to which the music firmly belongs.

Nine Beats compounds and mixes three special talents and brings together a sound that is to die for, to relish in the subtlety of music and in tracks such as the gracious Syd’s Song, Tail Lights, Comin’ In and Eye’s there is much to celebrate in the work that the three musicians have  put together. The musical harmony is generous and the beat unrelenting.

As the British winter draws closer, there is a shining music light to grasp hold of and nurture in Rev Ferriday & The Longdogs’s Nine Beats.

Ian D. Hall