Reviewed by Anthony Longville

When I first read that one of the reasons for release of this CD was to raise money for charity, I inwardly cringed a little. Would this be one where I felt I could not really be critical because it was bad music in a good cause? But I needn't have worried. The self-titled debut album comes from a seven-piece band from Texas. Yes, the cause they support is orphans on the Texas/Mexico border, but the music stands up for itself. My main apology to the band is that I have no idea how to categorise this musically. At the root I guess it's a gentle southern rock, but the album takes in a number of styles including blues, country, jazz, Latin, roots/acoustic, worship, all delivered with a musical excellence. Vocals are shared between three members. All three voices have a pleasing character of their own even if I would not say any of them are particularly strong. The whole album gives me the impression of a band who enjoy playing together and had a great time putting this CD together. There's some lovely extended soloing on both guitar and piano. There's also encouragement and challenge for the Christian listener and some good evangelistic numbers. Throughout, the whole thing is suffused with plenty of humour. A final note for trivia buffs, one member of Wear That Shoe is guitar maestro Barry Bynum, once in the legendary Liberation Suite.

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