Reviewed by Trevor Kirk

When it comes to purely instrumental albums, I must confess that the first thing that comes into my head is "Can I use any tracks for fill-in music going up to the News on my Hospital Radio programme?" Not what the record company intended! Very rarely in my experience does an instrumental album rise above the "elevator muzak" level; Dave Fitzgerald's work springs to mind and now I can add this one - harmonica maestro Buddy Greene, whose other claim to fame is the co-authorship of one of the best Christmas songs of recent years, "Mary Did You Know" (which also appears on the album), has arranged some hymns ancient and modem (usually the former) for piano, guitar and his trusty harp. Typical Kingsway non-informative packaging fails to tell me the names of the other participants, and the back of the sleeve lists tracks that aren't even on the album, but these quibbles apart, this is a thoroughly enjoyable, sensitively played bunch of "kick off your shoes and relax at the end of a hard day" tunes. Given the 14 tracks on offer, I would have expected a slightly more generous playing time than 42 minutes 50 seconds, but even this would not stop me from recommending 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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