Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
To carry the tender voice onwards is nothing short of a great gift to bestow upon those who have left us behind as their own great adventure carries on. In the same way that we lauded and praised our ancestors in songs of memory in times that may seem alien to us, the practise, the joy of singing to our parents or grandparents, of remembering them in verse or poetic stance, be they heroic or just kind, it is a race memory we still follow, even if we have no understanding of the reasons why we do it, and just believe that it is there because it is a beautiful thing to do.
Gareth Heesom’s new single, Billy’s Girl, falls into that sense of over- powering memory, a song that captures the heart and love between one human being and another, compassionate, full of fondness for the heroine lost but one that is not ashamed to try to understand the pain that comes hand in hand with such feelings of intense emotion. It is that struggle to keep the tears at bay whilst eulogising someone to whom you were close which makes songs such as Billy’s Girl such a stirring melancholic tune and one that touches the divide between longing and grief with such glory.
It is a glory after all, the ability to sing to those that came before you, to send their name into the air and the ether, to laud their names and the lives they led, for everybody deserves that act of decency, to be completely forgotten is surely an anathema to how we lived our lives, hopefully one filled with kindness, of being thought of as a good egg, of being the one person in a million to whom your children and grandchildren still wish they could have around.
Gareth Heesom uses the lyrics and the tune of the song with responsibility, there is the power in the words that send hope, there is the music that accompanies that feels like a lullaby, the gently putting to rest of a life well lived but one that never leaves, a shadow in the corner of our minds that forever brings forth a tear and a smile, of regret and remorse, of hope and dreams that faith, whichever way you choose to look at it, will carry your song into their ears and beyond.
A wonderful song, Gareth Heesom has offered not only love in Billy’s Girl but a large part of his own heart as well.
Ian D. Hall