Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
We are actively urged to change the world and yet how many of us find the direction in which to pursue these goals, to keep on the straight line and absorb the bumps in the road that have been placed to throw us off course; it is enough to make us throw away the keys to our own success, ditch the vehicle we are driving and head on into the bar of existence and breathe in the fumes of our neighbours favourite dram.
It is easy to get waylaid, we need affirmation, we find ourselves needing to embrace trust, but knowing if it is broken it will somehow lead into a great riff and a song which will grab the attention of others but we talk to the bartender, the agony aunt with a cloth and an easy smile and in place of a declaration, the vow to which we have strived to keep, instead we fall into the charms of the one who tells tales and who suggests we might instead be engrossed, fall in love, as they impart knowledge to us in These Are My Whiskey Dreams.
A singer-songwriter might be considered the finest of these bartenders, thy hold the truth and listen to the statements of others, like scribes and playwrights, artists and actors, they have it within them to clear the haze and offer the world an easy stool, a coaster and a double shot of intricately drawn scenarios in which the muse and the music are open to suggestion and the sweet draw of expression is virtuous and sensual.
For Christina Larocca, These Are My Whiskey Dreams is the invitation shown in which the listener is the plus one to the party, a private affair, small perhaps in numbers but exceptional on delivery. Across songs such as the early single A Man Like You, Hard To Trust In Love, Smoke Marijuana, Whiskey Dreams and Breathe, trust in the bartender is absolute, the music that plays out across the bar of time has others swaying in time as they sip on their own favourite tipple and allow the single cube of ice to melt away and take their cares with them.
To blend or to have a single malt is a sign of inquisitive creation, one that sits beautifully in Christina Larocca’s new album, one that is distilled with patience and love; These Are My Whiskey Dreams and they give substance for the journey ahead. Â
Christina Larocca releases These Are My Whiskey Dreams on July 12th.
Ian D. Hall