Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

If only there had been a side-street, a sort of half way house for the convicted, a place where they could have been tagged and kept an eye on by the God of their choice, then perhaps Adam and Eve could have found their way back to the secret garden a lot quicker, harsh but fair it would have been announced as, a banishment fitting the crime and yet if there had been the Backstreets of Eden, then the music would still have got to their ears and redemption may have been found.

Redemption is one thing, being absolved quite another, but in the scheme of things when Eden is lost, the sound from the backstreets is more than fulfilling, it is the reason why the jive remains strong, why the lyric is full of imagery and even if there is a cold wind blowing through the alleyway that leads to the various songs and tunes laid out behind the doors of Steve Logan, there is a warm welcome assured, the fire stoked and an ear for the stories told; who needs Eden anyway when the back streets are a finer place to be.

In songs such as Lucky Dollar, Biding My Time, Paperboy, Lead in My Pencil and Hyacinth Girl, Steve Logan hushes away the issues of the breaking of the tenancy agreement between gods and mortals and in his own indisputably discerning way allows the music on the backstreets to be played loud, clear and full of positive energy; it is a sound that can be heard from the street below, through the walls and the sincere train of thought that comes with someone of Mr. Logan’s life made good.

The album perhaps is highlighted by the excellent Yesterday’s Hero (Part Two), a track of absolute wealth musically, lyrically and spiritually, a song that would not be out of place in the hands of early Bob Dylan, a sense of mastery that doesn’t come along all that often but one that Steve Logan has found, utilised and allowed with genuine care to be seen as bright and bountiful as it truly is.

The Backstreets of Eden are full of life, of pastures that are far greener than what was left behind, this is a place where redemption is sought and gained, an album which brings you into a new home and insists gently that you stay and breathe in this new and alluring atmosphere.

Ian D. Hall