Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
How often do we truly sit down and seek enlightenment from the anecdotes and mysteries entwined within the set of A Traveller’s Tales, how often do we sit in silence and let the narrator’s words flow over us and sit in silence, reflecting not on the appearance or the situation, but solely on the legend being created? In this fast-paced modern world in which we cannot even let a day turn without a sarcastic remark or subtle dig in the ribs go past on social media, we don’t let the story sink in, a traveller’s tale deserves more respect.
Across 12 new songs, Gavin Sutherland explores the writer’s lament, the purpose perhaps of how we view the world dominated by everything from technology to disinformation, the lie of the land when we don’t bother to listen to the simple heartbeat of the planet and we observe less because it no longer suits our opinion, our gestures, our habits. The tale is often ridiculed, pulled apart at the seams, and yet if we find the time to listen, we can learn, regardless of the way we view the story, something would stir within us and it is to the wonderful observation captured by Mr. Sutherland that makes A Traveller’s Tales a precise and insightful piece of musical art.
Songs such as Righteous Road, In The Eye Of The Storm, Voice of Reason, The Bend In The River and Gull With A Broken Wing, Gavin Sutherland, along with musicians such as Terry Butters, Dave McGarry, David Sutherland, Heidi Browne, Steve Watts, Sam Lumsden, and backing vocals from Nancy K. Dillon, Debi Doss, Claire Kennedy, Heidi Browne and Gillie Nicholls, all combine to share the vision of patience, of presenting the story as both the bulging epic to the many and the secretive whisper to the one in solitary, lost in their own space but knowing full well that the world needs fewer entrepreneurs and more passionate souls who will regale with an narration of life that is fulfilling.
A terrifically presented album, one that befits a master of their trade, A Traveller’s Tale is a story once sketched out but now firm and resolute, one that catches the breath as well as the imagination.
Ian D. Hall