Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Goin’ Home. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

You don’t get much fresher than Kenny Wayne Shepherd when it comes to bringing out an album of exquisite note only a few short months after being part of the supergroup The Rides’ magnificent piece of work Can’t Get Enough. For fans of Kenny Wayne Shepherd that really shouldn’t be a surprise as Goin’ Home is an album that is delivered with the same strutting style, the same admirable honesty as you would hope to find attached to each person who signed the Declaration of Independence.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Goin’ Home. Album Review. full post

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

Alex Cottrell, Untold. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It can be infuriating when going to the theatre, in any form or of any size, hearing a superb piece of music which captures the play in all its glory and then realising that you will probably never be able to hear it again unless the company get together and try to evoke the feeling that was hopefully felt by all.

Alex Cottrell, Untold. E.P. Review. full post

(410 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Under Milk Wood, 2014 Cast Recording. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Michael Sheen, Tom Jones, Matthew Rhys, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Tom Rhys Harries, Karl Johnson, Iwan Rheon, Aneurin Barnard, Ioan Gruffudd, Kimberley Nixon, Steffan Rhodri, Mark Lewis Jones, Richard Harrington, Sophie Evans, Melanie Walters, Griff Rhys Jones, John Rhys Davies, Andrew Howard, Rakie Ayola, Jonathan Pryce, Sian Phillips, Bryn Terfel, Katherine Jenkins, Charlotte Church, Tom Ellis, Aneirin Hughes, Robert Pugh, Suzanne Packer, Eve Myles, Alexandra Roach, Craig Roberts, Sharon Morgan, Owen Teale, Di Botcher, Sian Thomas, Jon Tregenna.

Under Milk Wood, 2014 Cast Recording. Television Review. full post

(471 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Rob Eldridge, Room Full of Gardens. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Unlike say New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles or Boston, you have got to have spent time in Pittsburgh to fully understand and appreciate its magnetic charm, both as a city and its history and for the culture that has developed out of the bars, theatres and dreams of the people who make the Steel City what it is. The other famous cities that litter the thoughts of those dreaming of seeing America with their own eyes are all visible in the daydreams of those willing to stretch their legs and their minds, Pittsburgh though has to be seen physically to be appreciated and appreciated it would be.

Rob Eldridge, Room Full of Gardens. Album Review. full post

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

Fargo, The Muddy Road. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 81/2/10

Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman, Allison Tolman, Colin Hanks, Bob Odenkirk, Oliver Platt, Keith Carradine, Kate Walsh, Joshua Close, Adam Goldberg, Russell Harvard, Glen Howerton, Joey King, Tom Musgrave, Susan Park, Barry Flatman, Peter Brietmayer.

It is the ethos of those who perhaps understand Human behaviour better than the rest of us, who say with certain straight melancholy, that the so called Zombie Apocalypse surely wouldn’t be any worse than what we deal with now. They have a point when the devilish Lorne Malvo can be both cruelly charming and disarmingly brutal, an individual who surely would draw inspiration from the evil spirits that fester alongside and within Christopher Marlow’s Faustus.

Fargo, The Muddy Road. Television Review. full post

(532 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)

Magnum, Gig Review. Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton. (2014)

Bob Catley, Wolverhampton 2014. Photograph by Judith Hall

Bob Catley, Wolverhampton 2014. Photograph by Judith Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are homecomings and then there are days when the bunting has been prepared for weeks, the ticker tape pouring off machines and road sweepers gladly earning overtime as they have brushes at the ready and every condition met to be remembered as a cog in a big machine of musical outpouring. With the sun pouring down on the Staffordshire City, its football team, Wolverhampton Wanderers having made it a very successful season and confirming Championship status for the following season, all that was left was for Magnum to come home to the Wulfrun Hall and give a splendid performance.

Magnum, Gig Review. Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton. (2014) full post

(688 words, 1 image, estimated 2:45 mins reading time)

Ian Anderson, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

 

For the audience who made their way to one of the final nights of rock to be heard in the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall before its anticipated make over, for the band on stage who entertained them solidly for over two hours, there is at times nothing like Living In The Past; especially when it comes to witnessing the legendary Ian Anderson on stage.

Ian Anderson, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(629 words, estimated 2:31 mins reading time)

Blue Ruin, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargreaves, Kevin Kolack, Eve Plumb, David W. Thompson, Brent Werzner, Stacy Rock, Sidné Anderson, Bonnie Johnson, Daniel L. Kelly, Ydaiber Orozco, Erica Generaux Smith.

 

When one plots revenge they had better dig two graves…but once revenge is thrust into the hands of the meek and mild the body count could be a lot higher as the film starring the superb Macon Blair, Blue Ruin, more than ably shows.

Blue Ruin, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool. full post

(476 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

The Voodoo Sheiks, Borrowed & New. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Something old, something new, something borrowed, lots of things blue…The Voodoo Sheiks cover all the bases with their new album Borrowed & New.

Borrowed & New sees The Voodoo Sheiks lead with something rich, diverse and ultimately a pleasure to wriggle into, an album of many different features but with one goal squarely in mind, to give the Blues a good going over and rock the life out of it, to give it a good shake and tell it to misbehave, to disobey the sometimes tight regulation attached and play up all night long. In that Andy Pullin, Slowbox Dave, John Coombes and Adrian Thomas tear into the Blues, their own temple building songs and tracks by some of the greats, and start to put up the adjoining and naughty beat alongside.

The Voodoo Sheiks, Borrowed & New. Album Review. full post

(498 words, estimated 2:0 mins reading time)

Rob Clarke and The Wooltones, The World of The Wooltones. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

If you can remember the 60s then as saying goes, you can’t have been there. You can’t have seduced by the sound that ensnared a generation and made the smallest hairs on their arms spring to attention as if a thousand watts of electricity had been pumped through every individual strand. Of course if you were born after the 60s and have had to make do with the stories of those who professed to having been at Candlestick Park, the Isle of Wight and the other hundreds of magic moments in which the 60s music hung round and the highlighted sores on society they captured.

Rob Clarke and The Wooltones, The World of The Wooltones. Album Review. full post

(502 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)