Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
They tell you that it will all work out in the end, that the girl will get what she aspires to, that the boy will find a way to bring about change, that corrupt Governments will fall and that the people of the world will reject certain alleged realisms and bring forth a welcome peace, or at the very least learn to live with each other.
Perhaps the world and its wisdom is not ready for humanity to live in such comfortable nostalgia that once was the staple of good night wishes from parents and loved ones when we found the day as bleak as the night that would hopefully follow, that our nightmares would play out in real time and only the soothing words uttered, “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” would alleviate all concerns.
Lockport in New York State might not be the first place in America where you would consider finding the sentiment of the phrase used with such forethought, a city caught between the edges of Buffalo and Lake Ontario, just 20 miles shy of the peace and tranquillity that Niagara Falls may bring to the searcher of such plausible beauty. Yet from a location rarely to be found in the average British music lovers textbook, that four word sentence somehow takes on extra gravitas, a meaningful truth urged from the soulful and the soul as Handsome Jack takes to the stage.
Tracks such as City Girls, Baby Be Cool, the album’s signature tune of Everything’s Gonna Be Alright, Why Do I Love You The Way I do, Hey Mama (Put Your Red Dress On) and Got It Bad, all hit the spot of opening your mind to personal redemption, of expressing poignancy, of affecting the emotions. Carried forth by Jamison Passuite, Joe Verdonselli and Bennie Hughes with incredible drive and a sweet style that stylishly could easily sit in splendour in the bars of Chicago and New York but also within the drama of old beams and high bourbon appreciation of Toronto’s Grossman’s Tavern.
It depends on how we conduct ourselves in the future, perhaps the false hood of promises might eventually find the human race out and eternal optimism to be seen as nothing but a sham, however, with bands such as Handsome Jack making their incredible presence known, there is hope for all, that maybe Everything’s Gonna Be Alright.
Ian D. Hall