Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Too often do we believe that what is not seen to be producing or adding to the bloated slug like economy is worthless or undeserving of allowing the senses to be commanded by its appearance or its quality. It is a point of rancour and heartbreak that nature and art has to be adding a series of zeros to a number in which to be considered fruitful, that it must add to the bank balance before it can be seen as anything more than indulgence.

You don’t have to go far from your front door to realise that what Government and authority tells you is nuts, that it contradicts all that we feel as human beings, that art and nature is a canvas that only requires understanding and love; the artist should be praised for bringing to life the scene which so many will never witness, the woodsman and the gardener must be admired for letting the scene be opened as much as it should be as you look out over Carolina Sky.

Pete McClelland’s debut solo album is such a case worth of honour and commendation, his is a spirit that has gone in search of the beauty, and whilst not everyone can do the same, that they cannot leave their own surroundings, to undertake a drive across a continent, to travel in someone else’s backyard, let alone their shoes, is surely a reason in which to be alive.

The genuine affection for all that the artist sees is often left out, it is missed in the wording or the beat and yet like the big rolling hills and mountains that are a gift to that part of the American landscape, the Folk musician will always convey a continuation of memory and eulogise the power they feel and touch.

Pete McClelland’s musical touch is sensitive; a feeling of open purity is attached to the work and a deep cleansing breath in which all worries can be, at least for the moment, dispelled. It is that purity of spirit that sees tracks such as The Appalachian Way, Walk This Road, Marie, A Kind of Kindness and Those Good Old Songs rise above the clouds, above the landscape and witness the world for what it should be, discovery and meaning, not adding percentage points to the coffers of a bloated outdated machine.

Ian D. Hall