Robbie Faulks & Linda Gail Lewis, Wild! Wild! Wild!. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Being in the same league as an iconic sibling is a double-edged sword, and for the tremendous Linda Gail Lewis, they don’t come much more iconic than the original wild man of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Jerry Lee Lewis.

There is the twin element of light and shade in which to navigate through, the outlandish beauty of the thrilling windswept wildness competes with the red rose flower in the turbulent sea tossed aside because of its association with the field of sunflowers; this is the path into which Linda Gail Lewis steps with Robbie Faulks and comes out down the line and over the gate of popular music with her exceedingly cool reputation even further enhanced, it is enough to drive you wild with excitement.

Wild! Wild! Wild! is a symbol of observation, of the marriage between dramatic female insight and the steadiness of the passion of one of the men in her life, her own creativity on a par with her elder brother and the steam that comes off the raging, smouldering, red hot furnace of life. Wild! Wild! Wild!, not so much a title but a demand, an exploration into the side of wonderfully natural, the untameable, and one that both artists, as well as the contributions from musicians such as Redd Volkaert, Danny B. Harvey, Scott Ligon, Kelly Hogan and Joan Collaso, slip into as if they have been part of that inexhaustible human fire all their life.

There is nothing wrong with being able to avoid the image of reminisce whilst exemplifying the glory of a memorable sound, one that lives, breathes and fights for every step it ever won; and across songs such as I Just Lived A Country Song, That’s Why They Call It Temptation, the phenomenally superb Till Death, Foolmaker, On the Jericho Road and It Came From The South, that sound hurtles towards the listener at such a rate of knots that you are not sure what has bowled you over until you look back and see the intoxicating smiling figures of experience, urgency and passion looking at you with eyes so wide, so full of grace and mischief, that you bow to them in thanks.

An album that is undeniably fun, Wild! Wild! Wild! is a set of songs that was always going to come and fill your day.

Wild! Wild! Wild! By Robbie Faulks and Linda Gail Lewis will be released on August 10th via Bloodshot Records.

Ian D. Hall