Serious Child, Empty Nest. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Time makes the thought of the empty nest syndrome easier to bear, it doesn’t make it any less painful, but like all moments of sadness, of loneliness and heartbreak, Time is, as they say, the great healer. It is the ritual that we perhaps all go through at some point if we are fortunate to have the Serious Child, the inquisitive, the brave, the loved, the demanding, the passionate of every creed, colour and belief in our hearts, the Empty Nest is not the end of all things, it is the beginning, and for the talent within Serious Child, Alan Young, Carla March and Steve Welch, it is a launch, an coolly framed active introduction, that sits wonderfully in the heart of the listener.

Linsey Aitken And Ken Campbell, Shore To Shore. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The maps that show the world the scale of the countries, the nations that fit into place, are normally completely wrong, at its most central point, the continent of Africa is so much more than is ever given respect for, not only in terms of its sheer size but its beauty, its endurance and its people. The same can be said for Scotland. Yes, from Shore To Shore its land mass is not as great as some, its near neighbour perhaps disproportionally larger in the ground it takes up, like an overweight, blustering man and his skinny put upon wife sharing the same bed, the strain on the relationship becomes too much. Yet Scotland itself is immense, it’s heart and soul is everything, and in its art, its stature across the board, is phenomenally endearing.

The Shires, Accidently On Purpose. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10


There are so few things that are ever truly accidental, most chain of events and progression of cause and effect are designed, perhaps unconsciously but always with the firm result that the person’s life will change because of it. Accidently on Purpose, the eye rolling declaration of the mother who sees her child do the exact opposite of what she has commanded and even the experiment gone haywire in the lab, all have their reason, the effect consuming. In the studio, in the pursuit of sign of elegance and beauty, it is not an accident that comes to mind, but the sheer weight of passion that regales the listener to appreciate the coming together of British Country greats, The Shires, for their third album.

Anthony Horowitz, Moriarty. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * *

When you hold someone in such high regard, inevitably, cruelly, they will often at some point, let you down, even from beyond the grave the disappointment felt is almost akin to making the grief grow, become a monster, it can be unbearable and drive you to the point of reckless, or worse, emulation.

I Could Believe (Even After The Final Whistle).

 

There were nerves admittedly,

Isn’t there always, I thought,

but did it matter, I had

taken my mind of the evening,

super sexy perhaps,

or just a brief glimpse of the divine,

once in a lifetime, my soul,

nestling somewhere between the Canadian

past, Cornish beauty and Birmingham

love, the Manchester Saturdays

in which I exploded with passion

in your forgiving arms,

the Mersey beat in which I trust,

the south coast serenade

and a moment in which identity

George Duff, The Collier Laddie. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is perhaps natural in the modern world, to hear the voice of the traditional musician, the established song, and think of it as a quaint reminder of what life was like before the advent of the electronic revolution or the influx of genres that either you have embraced, or which leave you cold. It is that quaint reminder that left the Blues suffering towards the end of the last century, along with its bloated sense of entitlement which kept people from holding it too close, and left Jazz in a quandary of how to reinvent itself in the 21st Century.

Mike Smith, Paint Your Sky. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The wagon was painted quite some time ago, but as with most lives, we often come into our own story later than others who have been waiting patiently for us, who have erected the scaffolding, laid out the hopes and the brushes and await eagerly for you to Paint Your Sky, to put down the colours in which have defined your life, your vision, your meaningful, and honour-bound art.

Whisper With Humilty, (It Might Be Coming Home).

 

It started out as a whisper,

a small national joke

at the expense of our once

blighted, blind devotion,

to a game, a pastime,

we believed with arrogance

that should always be ours

to hold aloft the greatest prize.

Like conquest, of Empire,

of taking what wasn’t ours,

we demanded it and we became

barbaric.

The whisper turned,

not out of self-importance

or crass, dogged egotism,

but out of hope,

that we might once again

be civilised about such things,

Little Sparrow, Just 3. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The power of 3, a number that cannot be divided by the whole, it is a symbol of strength, of divinity and legend, the three-fold person to which we all see in the long mirrors that adorned tables of old and into each face there were the reflections of glory, of inspiration and of beauty; Just 3, there is no need to crowd the room with more, there can be no greater affection bestowed.