Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There have been times when people have sneered at the thought of an artist who wears the badge of spirituality on their coat sleeve, the muffled laughter and scorn behind the one hand, whilst extending the other outwards in some scene of warped lie, eager to hear the music, but reluctant, often deaf, to the message being spoken and urged.

In the heart of the Texas Rock community, Israel Nash’s fifth studio album, Lifted is one that elevates the belief and sincerity of the intimately drawn spiritual feeling, one that has every right to hold court and feel the texture of the landscape of the real world, and the perfect representation on the other side of the mirror, one that is only waiting to flow through.

It is in the uncultivated that we can picture what it would be like to stand tall in the natural, the abundant growth possible; one can always find a way to sit down in a deckchair and marvel at the sensibly manicured, but there is no rhythm to such finery and in the end the spirit craves abundant beauty in the elegantly haphazard.

In songs such as Rolling On, Lucky Ones, Spiritfalls, Northwest Stars, Strong Was The Night and The Widow, Israel Nash takes the listener on a journey down river, one that seemingly navigates the unhurried stream and raging weir, past the banks and views of the fertile landscape. Only at the end does the music fan realise that the artist has been taken to the edge of the waterfall, where instead of plummeting to the cold waters and jagged rocks of disappointing finale, the fan rowing the boat and the casual audiophile with their fingers placed in the spray, find that the musician on the tiller is prepared, that he is ready to see them Lifted to another stream of conscious pleasure.

Surrounded by the intricate and full of flavour, Israel Nash and the band of players steer the listener fastidiously onwards, the soothing conjecture at one with the psychedelic and the unsullied calm. Lifted higher, praised with the reassuring influence, this son of the Texan beat has created the sense of internal beautiful solitude and peace, knowing that even when the waterfall comes, it can, and will be avoided. Inspirational and filled with natural certainty, Lifted is the proof of the fully realised dream.

Ian D. Hall