Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We are often too busy finding ways to cause division amongst ourselves to fully understand that We All Share The Same Sky. We come together in a symbol of hope and then grow jealous of the perceived space we occupy and the imagined circle in which others breathe; it is our downfall, it is our shame and we keep repeating it, we see the heavens above and want it all to ourselves, at least a bigger portion in which to witness the stars being born with greater clarity and never mind that the ones that need more inspiration, for they can look down at their feet.

Lancashire born, but now with the beating heart of one who has made Yorkshire his home, Jon Budworth perhaps sees that sky in a different way, the undercurrent of the age in which history has always been keen to keep our near neighbours close, but not close enough to allow subjugation, a collaboration of relations. We fight side by side in war, but in peace, so it goes, we shall find ways to prove we deserve to see more of heaven than you. It is a posturing that makes no sense in the age we live in; we can achieve so much if only we understood that the sky is the same in Mexico as it is in the United States of America, as it is in Russia, Korea, Japan, South Africa and Britain.

The delicate framing of the album, the nine original tracks and one outstanding version of a traditional, the sentiments of the age of melancholy and truth, all carefully sewn together to show the listener that everybody at some point has the same basic fears, the feeling of war and the sadness that comes with age.

With wonderful contributions from Lynne O’ Malley on vocals on the expressive desire for a simpler kind of life in Lighthouse Keeper, the violin of Wendy Ross, Phil Snell on Mandolin on the track The Great Escaper and Bernard Cromarty on the accordion, Jon Budworth’s follow up to his E.P.s Time Machine and Trees Turn To Fire, make this an album of sincere thought and reason and with songs such as Hill View, Rosebuds In June, the undisguised care of 3am and Some Days all combining to bring rare possibility to the fore, We All Share The Same Sky is a dream that can, and must be, pursued.

A truly wondrous achievement, a collector’s piece of the Folk genre.

Ian D. Hall