Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The waves may crash against the walls and batter the ramparts of an enclosed city standing on the edge of a cliff like suspension but it doesn’t stop the water from seeping in and flooding the walkways and courts with new ideas.

The state of musical excellence, the tsunami of challenge that comes from the vocals of Callaghan is something that even the strongest and most fortified stony heart could not withstand. The crumbling edifice showing the hole in which the story-telling expertise shines through is one in which Callaghan exploits with care and detail and in the 40 States & Counting E.P. it is one that offers a state of mercy and forgiveness, as well a beautiful set of haunting lyrics.

The five songs on offer from Callaghan are selections taken from her debut Life In Full Colour and the live recording Callaghan Live In America and in Look Around, Close My Eyes, the superb Green Eyes, When You Loved Me and This Is Now offer a huge insight into a talent that may have gone unnoticed in different times but to whose softness of voice carries a reason of hope and deliverance. It is that tsunami of hope which makes the sometimes heroic delve into the catalogue one in which is an enforced and unavoidable pleasure.

What makes Callaghan’s music so interesting is the appearance that many would take at face value of being so American and yet has the British coolness that underpins it to reality. It is the music that captures an ideal and yet finds itself layering itself in other clothes to great acclaim, an actor with a wardrobe of disguises and concealed make up could not bring more to the role, nor do it with such open thought, such is the quality of the unmasked and vocally stable.

There are few introductions that capture the heart as quickly as what Callaghan offers in 40 States & Counting, an intriguing handshake of such finery that cannot and dare not be let go.

Ian D. Hall