Reviewed by Simon Eden

What are you left with if you start with the blues and take away the melancholy? Maybe Eric Clapton without a guitar? There is at least the 12 bar blues basis of many a rock song, and this album is full of familiar riffs with blues rock structure. Hailing from Freedom Church in Barnstable, Devon, this is Nigel's first album release and the album has the support of the Freedom Band. It is independently produced, so the mixing is a bit fuzzy and slightly distorted. This has lost much of the lead guitar to the background, hence the loss of the blues feel, leaving the distorted rhythm guitar and especially the bass to dominate. "Hold On The Light" is the exception where the wah-wah pedal has prolific use in the fore. Lyrically, 'God's Highway' has the bemusing anachronistic line that "Jesus has programmed your GPS" (I guess he means Sat-Nav if he wasn't pretending to be American). Generally the gruff vocals are consistently positive such as "Lord you are my strength", "You came and paid the price" and "When I was hurting and crying inside/You walked beside me and guided home"; so not much opportunity for melancholy there. All in all, a rather stereotyped set of gospel blues.

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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