Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Those Howard devotees, of which since his devastating Greenbelt gigs there are no small number, will be shocked by the "Look To The Sky" opener. The blues has been dumped in favour of a piece of gravel voiced AOR complete with girl chorus which is competent enough but which could be performed by any half-competent rocker. Other numbers too move through standard pop-rock grooves and even his "Evangelistic Blues" turns out to be a piece of tongue-in-cheek acoustic whimsy and a long way from the torrid sanctified blues he once scorched tne listeners' ears with. There are still some traces of raunchier times like, an almost Stax soul sound on "Power Of Love", but it now seems that the one time gospel-blues pioneer has settled for the safer haven of derivative AOR. Shame.

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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