Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It is a good thing to let the goose pimples go out for a walk of their own volition sometimes. To let them wander unhindered and unrestrained all over the body and at the same feel the hairs on the back of the neck stiffen and take delight at the thought of a piece of music sounding so exquisitely haunting, that it can barely be contained.
For John Chatterton and his album and then again… goose pimples and the hair feeling the twangs of ghostly delight does not do justice to the sheer immensity of the guitar work that comes across, the delicate nature that happens when brain and fingers fuse in fantastic flight. It is, for all intense purposes, like finding out that in his spare time the Angel Gabriel has been taking lessons from a inquisitive but good natured demon, one who watched George Harrison play once, decided he quite liked it and weaved a spell to sound just as beautiful, Gabriel taking full advantage of the deal.
The album is made up of a collection of assorted adaptations, of re-imagined solo guitar expertise and fingers that once get started are only slowed by Time clock watching and the stop button being pressed on the recording. They are songs that for Mr. Chatterton’s fan’s have long been mused over, long been held in high regard when heard live and now are able to be heard with that extra helping of melancholic beauty as each note strains to fill the void of a room and the crackle of a fire warming the mantle.
With tracks such as The Beatles’ Come Together, Marvin Gaye’s I Heard It Through The Grapevine, the temptation of the traditional Irish folk songs She Moved Through The Fair and The Parting Glass and of course the innate beauty of arguably one of the finest songs ever created by George Harrison, but changed to perhaps reflect the changing of the times from a simpler Heaven to a more brutal Hell in Still My Guitar Gently Weeps, John Chatterton proves, not that he needed to, that just the simplicity of a guitar, without being encumbered by voice or over arching orchestra to dampen the effect, is such a wonderful thing to hear and appreciate.
Solid and tantalising stuff that only John Chatterton could deliver!
Ian D. Hall