Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Sammy Homer is always telling me that the best female singers in the world come from Ireland and after first hearing Joanne Hogg I half believed him. Now I believe him a bit more. For this team from County Antrim have in Janet Holmes a quite exceptional singer who, halfway through the first track of this 4-song tape, had me scrambling round the litter-strewn front room, which we laughingly call an editorial office, looking for the accompanying letter. Then I discovered that the drummer in The Bare Bones is Mike Love, who was with the much loved Irish team SOS who you read about in a past Cross Rhythms and who split up last year after 14 years. Now with acoustic guitarist Ivan Muirhead, bassist Dave Armstrong and the deliciously voiced Ms Holmes, Mike plays something a long way from the heavyish rock of SOS. Putting on my producer's hat I would tell the team to do a bit more folk and a tad less acoustic jazz and blues, while a distinctive songwriting style has still to fully emerge. But there's something very special here and when I get over to Northern Ireland next I'm definitely going to catch a gig - and that's making no bare bones about it.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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