Reviewed by Dave Brassington

It's daring for an "unknown" singer/songwriter to record a live album with a determined policy of no overdubs. And it's also daring for an "unknown" to include in his stripped-down acoustic set covers of songs by such renowned songsmiths as Paul Simon and Darius Rucker as listeners are bound to make comparisons with the unknown's original material. The fact that 'Savour Life' shows no quality dip when featuring Sadler's songs and the best three numbers here are the achingly sad tale of failed romance "We Are Each All Alone"; the uplifting celebration of God's forgiveness "What A Love"; and the joyful tribute to an Asian street musician "Lior" which Keith tells us in his brief introduction helped inspire the true live concept of the album. Keith's voice is rich and expressive throughout, his Friends keep the accompaniments simple and clean (the only musical glitch I detected was a slightly fluffed note on the whistling - I lie not - on "Little Bird") and the whole thing gets to a good climax when a couple known as Honey & The Bear add some body to the chorus on "Hold My Hand". I've heard some of Keith's studio recordings but I'm confident that the Stowmarket-based songsmith has delivered his best ever recording with this set, which paradoxically demonstrates that live performance is best.

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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