The ink hasn’t even dried after I’d finished writing about fellow Scotsman Mr. D’s debut Wings & Wheels (read the review somewhere around these pages), and in comes the 8th (!? … I must’ve been asleep) album by these guys who seem to mistake the Scottish Highlands for Sierra Nevada.
Instead of writing a new one, I might’ve just replaced a couple of song titles in the above mentioned review, and I’m sure no one would notice … the influences are THAT similar. Nevertheless, they both have at least a couple of songs worthy of anyone I will, and have already name checked.
With it’s laid back Crazy Horse-like groove Making Time To Talk would sit quite comfortably alongside Neil Young’s Cowgirl… and Down By The River, with What’s Going On being it’s closest companion, in a more country-fied way. Had Gene Clark been able to overcome his fear of flight and stuck around when Gram Parsons joined, I’m sure Nowhere Girl and Where I’m From might’ve easily been The Byrds’ tunes with the two of them fronting.
Of course, some of their Glaswegian soulmates are pretty hard not to mention, with songs like the title tune, Breakdown or More Pleasant To The Ear having the spirits of Francis McDonald, Norman Blake, Daniel Wylie or Duglas T. Stewart flying all around.
[Released by Sound Asleep 2008]
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