Category Archives: Music

Dawn Landes & The Kentuckians, Covers E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The love of Americana and the thought the abundance of wide open spaces that are filled with historical beauty, destruction, free thought and in some extreme cases, regretfully closed minds, all make America an appealing place in which to praise the ability of song writing.

The American dream, the chance to improve your lot in life and its downfall when the intensity of its politics bites with severity, is one that provides the thought of a lyric and offers redemption, a softness to the hammer blow when it goes wrong.

Dawn Landes & The Kentuckians, Covers E.P. Review. full post

(456 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Southern Tenant Folk Union, The Chuck Norris Project. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

For many a music fan, the concept album is like allowing the lengthy attention span required for a drive down the back roads of Britain from John O’ Groats to Lands End via Whitby to enjoy the gothic ambiance and a day or two in Stratford to soak up the atmosphere of a greatest of them all and the master of the concept ideal.

Southern Tenant Folk Union, The Chuck Norris Project. Album Review. full post

(402 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Alan Kelly Gang, The Last Bell. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Solidarity is not always achieved when disparate forces come together, even if the final purpose is the same; it somehow can seem fractured and split and in the end only half the aspirations and goals are met.  This is not the case with the hugely impressive and direct new album from the Alan Kelly Gang, The Last Bell. If anything, more goals are met with extraordinary cheer than if the forthcoming General Election was being fought with a fairness in the media and all prospective members of Parliament were told that their pay was to be reduced to that of nurses.

Alan Kelly Gang, The Last Bell. Album Review. full post

(369 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Hayseed Dixie, Hair Down To My Grass. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

If you’re going to cover a song, change it so much to the point of near brilliance and don’t give a flying monkeys if it annoys the purist.

For Hayseed Dixie, and their cousins in arms The Bad Shepherds, taking a classic Rock song and giving it new life via the injection of new blood feels like such an honest and affirming thing to do, that you do wonder why some young musicians with boundless energy and creative juices flowing overtime don’t do the same rather than having their beautiful ability shrouded by the constraints placed upon them by sticking to rigidity laid down before them.

Hayseed Dixie, Hair Down To My Grass. Album Review. full post

(462 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Wednesday 13, Monsters Of The Universe: Come Out And Plague. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It feels so rare these days to come across a great American metal/Punk Horror band that when you do, the only option you feel you have is to fly to Philadelphia and with great acclaim and ceremony, run the risk of imprisonment, and ring the Liberty Bell for all its worth. Sound the bells the Americans are hitting back with vengeance.

Wednesday 13, Monsters Of The Universe: Come Out And Plague. Album Review. full post

(457 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Findlay Napier, VIP Very Interesting Persons. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

There is something deep down that makes anyone with even just a smidgen of adventure or human spirit welling up under the surface of composed reassurance that wouldn’t want, even for a short while, to be the hero of the hour, the person of the moment or even the V.I.P. entering the room.

Findlay Napier, VIP Very Interesting Persons. Album Review. full post

(465 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Battle Beast, Unholy Saviour. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Domination is not just measured in output but in years also. The Scandinavian block has over the course of the last few years become a power house, an energising animal with seemingly just one point to make and that is to prove time and time again that this decade is about those set of countries providing the very best Heavy Metal music anywhere in the world. In Finland’s Battle Beast the trend continues and in their latest stormer of an album, Unholy Saviour, it’s easy to see why.

Battle Beast, Unholy Saviour. Album Review. full post

(450 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Laurence Jones, Christina Skjolberg And Albert Castiglia, Blues Caravan 2014. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

For the romantic at heart, a caravan can conjure up images of life on the road, the sun forever on some distant horizon and the sound of a well played instrument soothing the soul as a camp fire roasts a meal and children play with content. For Ruf Records that romance is heightened by having celebrated 10 years as a producer of excellent material and what better way than to enhance its prestigious output than combining three of its major stars together under the Blues Caravan 2014 title.

Laurence Jones, Christina Skjolberg And Albert Castiglia, Blues Caravan 2014. Album Review. full post

(372 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Rusty Jacks, Holler ‘N’ Howl. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The mighty rivers of the world are the life blood of humanity, without trade and transport far in land, the sound of a thousand voices carrying distinctive tunes and songs filled with endless possibilities would be lost to us. The Mersey brings the sound of Liverpool to the rest of the world just as it bought the music from America that started a long tradition of inspiration the other way. The same could be said of the Mississippi, the long straddling, winding river that took Huckleberry Finn on his adventures; you would be forgiven though if the sound of the deep-south suddenly had an Irish inflection as Rusty Jacks releases their new album Holler ‘N’ Howl.

Rusty Jacks, Holler ‘N’ Howl. Album Review. full post

(375 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Live And Original Artists At The Norton Arms. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Going down the local was always an occasion. In the late 1960s, Football World Cup winners Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst were seen with their wives advertising the virtues of the local pub. In amongst the celluloid joviality and perhaps forced banter, there was a strong point to be made. The pub was the centre of the community and everything that was to happen, was to take place there. Of course the world has moved on, from having a meal rather than just a packet of salted peanuts, to family friendly options and even the cleaner atmosphere now associated with the smoking ban, the pub has had to change to survive.

Live And Original Artists At The Norton Arms. Album Review. full post

(510 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)