Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is a special place reserved for the soul of David Crosby, for the gentleness he portrays in his music, for the sense of persuasive mellow he captures as the songs ring out with tender heart and peace, that special place just seems to become more appreciative, more becoming, and as the Sky Trails, as the words become ethereal and powerfully cool, so the more music fans have an elder statesman in which to look for guidance.

The world has lost many of those of late, the thinkers, the ones that urge peace through the music delivered and even their own life has been tumultuous, they still see the value of aiming high with their ideals. Going a step further than the 2014 release of Croz, Sky Trails is an album which celebrates the voice and the whispering command in equal measure, the softness of the undercurrent holding back the rage in the man as he sees the world happily grasping the insanity that is ever growing in strength.

Age doesn’t necessarily temper a man down, it is just in the way that the words are sung and exalted that makes the difference and in this new set of songs, the voice is as smooth as it was, as keen as it ever wanted to be and across the songs on offer, what can be discerned as the soft voice of many reasons, is still the man of heartache and slow fused anger at the world; we all strive for peace, we all see the potential in our species but we all need to realise that some things are just not meant to be. It doesn’t mean we give up, like David Crosby we just sing harder.

In songs such as Before Tomorrow Falls On Love, the wonderful Amelia, Curved Air and Here It’s Almost Sunset, David Crosby sets the scene on his view, the one we all could only ever hope for in the throes of courage and personal emotional debt.

We all see the Sky Trails, some see conspiracy, some see patterns and possibly even a sense of beauty in the oddest place; what is arguably undoubted is the sense of possibility still open to us if we see the world as the canvas of a million paintings, no matter what we have done, we have the ability to change the picture, we can see Sky Trails as beginning.

Ian D. Hall