Reviewed by Trevor Kirk

First of all, of course, we had 'City Of Gold', birthed out of a song Phil Baggaley wrote with Dave Clifton and Ian Blythe; Phil once told me that, if he hadn't written "Golden City", he may well have ended up in Nashville with his erstwhile singing partner John Hartley producing albums for Sheila Walsh! After 'City Of Gold', the same team of Mal Pope, Julie Costello and Adrian Plass, along with Phil, Dave and Ian, plus David Fitzgerald, Neil Costello et al, brought out 'Shipwrecks & Islands', another huge success, another 10 square rating in Cross Rhythms, another album that's hardly ever out of my in-car CD player. Now, with the trend for pre-quels for everything from Star Wars to Star Trek, the same team give us 'Road To The City: A Pilgrim's Journey', again drawing much inspiration from Pilgrim's Progress, again featuring stunning songs and some cutting edge Plass poetry and prose, and again a delight from start to finish. One song, "Your Hand Will Cover Mine", makes it over from that other top-notch Gold Records production 'Still Small Voice'; there's a classy re-write of Mrs C F Alexander's favourite "There Is A Green Hill"; and a merry one and a half minutes' worth of Celtic jig, appropriately named "Joybringer". Mal, Julie and Adrian are on top form as usual, the production is only what you'd expect from Phil and Neil, ie, excellent, and the end product is an album with so many good things that I don't have room to rave about them all. You really must buy it, and I really must give it the only rating I can.

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