Having recently seen LONG ROAD HOME support Chantel McGregor at Cambridge Junction I was intrigued to see or should I say hear, what they sounded like on record.
Performing as a support act can be a thankless task, but I suspected there was something special happening that didn’t quite manifest itself on the stage that night.
So, what have I discovered, what do I now know that I didn’t?
Well; It is; Extraordinary an evocative extravaganza of the Blues! It has so many layers with a musical purity at its heart.
Every aspect of it from the keyboards to the vocals, via the guitar, bass and drums is perfection!
From beginning to end the listener is taken on a journey that is quite simply a delight. Steve Summers – guitars, Mike Sebbage – vocals, Derek White – bass, Lee Morrel – drums and Ian Salisbury – Keyboards, have produced an album of such Blues magnitude I am running out of superlatives.
I could see the collective experience that stood on that Cambridge stage, but I didn’t think anything could be this good.
In my opinion music should create and overriding sense of joy and emotion. That this does that and so much more makes it something to behold such is its magnificence.
Every player gets their moment to shine, the production is of a remarkable quality.
The songs are stories to our lives. ‘Long Road Home’ deals with the distance and time apart. ‘Are We Invisible?’ asks a great question, no matter what we say we seem to be ignored. ‘I Lose Again’ offers hope to the gambler in love, it is only a glimmer, then it gets snatched away. ‘Where I Wanna Be’ tells it like it is, love. ‘What They Call The Blues’ is the ups and downs of life.
You know the rest, that feeling, that pain, that loss. I guess that’s why they call it the Blues. There are moments of Hendrix, the passion of Free, flashes of ZZ Top and Bad Company and all the others that came before. ‘Whispering Rain’ has the beauty of Gary Moore at his best, how so much feeling can be expelled from guitar strings I don’t know and that voice haunted, howling and broken. Oh, and that Hammond Organ it toys with me… Things get slow and Funky on ‘I Don’t Belong Here’ that realisation that you are somewhere you shouldn’t be, that feeling of regret.
‘Perfect Afternoon’ has an intro that compels me to mention it, hairs and goosebumps, before the driving rhythm kicks in, like the song says, I never wanted it to end.