Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Being taken to The Parade is one of life’s absolute pleasures, you may only watch it take place, be the bystander in a crowd of thousands marvelling at the colour and sound as it fills the air and makes the senses run wild with excitement, but you will remember the procession forever, you will recall how small you felt in the face of the animated faces, how you held on to someone’s hand so that you wouldn’t get lost, you wouldn’t become part of the throng and the push of the convoy of exuberance and celebration.
And yet, in that moment you will want more than anything to become part of The Parade, to feel yourself wave at the crowd, to be more than an onlooker, you will want, desire, the truth of participation.
It is in The Parade, a collection of past favourites, new and vibrant tracks that sees the erstwhile and indomitable Peggy James lead the procession into the homes of the listener and start a sequence of events that are both berthed in glittering motorcade and in the demonstration befitting the call for change and the end of the unrelenting beige so admired by executives and the account for their ease of profitability.
The Parade is joyful, hard hitting, it is an album of huge feminine delight, but it is also one that is unafraid to tackle the issue of musical diversity, of the different genres and sounds that can, and should, be made by any human being with art in their veins, and a soul that strides purposely, but mindfully, across the world.
In a move in unquestionable and steadfast belief, the sixth album by Peggy James is a progressive piece of art, a rooted narrative akin to the unwavering beauty that comes from the ballad’s heart and the tradition of the Americana; the trail of the unbowed writer moving her way through the heartlands of a country that perhaps finds itself in its own version of Best Of and What’s New?, and which she draws on her observations with a fine and poignant pen.
This collection, this carnival of music contains thrills and a cavalcade of emotions, and in tracks such as Willow, Hard Times, Indoor Cat, the opener of I Go With Me, Thousand Reasons, So Subtle, and Crossroad Moment, what resonates is the voice, that explosion of defining beauty and taste, and one that the listener never forgets.
The Parade, the display of vision and sound, has never been more enticing, and the marvel of it, that unlike others who glorify in the yearly pageant, Peggy James captures the emotion of time, all the time. An album of sweet serenade, a music fan’s delight.
Peggy James releases The Parade digitally on November 19th with a physical cd to follow in 2022.
Ian D. Hall