Reviewed by Paul Poulton

Top notch material has been gathered for Jessy's stand for freedom. The album was inspired by his visit to Mombassa where he saw the infamous 49 steps that people were forced to negotiate on their way to the slave ships that would take them forever from their homeland in Kenya. The songs are strong and a number of them familiar to those who know the spirituals made famous in the previous century. Why they should be spongy is not plain to me, Jessy has a soft voice granted, but the instrumentation is soft in the middle, we have live drums but they don't cut like they should. The general feel of the album is blues/gospel which is great and I particularly love better than Mars Bars when I'm on a long walk, so although I can and do enjoy all these fine songs the recording of them is amiss. Which is a strange thing indeed in these days of hi-fi studios and recording equipment. Why the wool? This should be a nine square album, but the recording/production leaves it as a six.

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