Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

We shouldn’t need affirmation for the choices and loves of our lives, however there will always be those waiting outside the fortress we have built for ourselves wanting to tear it down, angry at what they perceive to be aloofness, or worse, a measure of self-control to which they seek to destroy. We should always be ever vigilant against such people who wish to decry our efforts for peace in a world that wants to destroy; we should all be able to withstand other’s opinion and declare that we are the King and the Queen Of My Castle.

It perhaps takes time to declare such things, we build the castle from the foundation up, it doesn’t magically appear as if placed there for our own benefit, we need to understand what to keep, what to let go, only then can our own Blues have a place in which to make us feel good and hopefully content.

For Diana Rein the love of the Blues gave her a grounding that is denied so many, the young age in which she was drawn in to the genre acting as a guide into where those foundations should be laid but it was also followed by the structure of self-reliance and even, as we all must face at some point, the inevitable feeling of the broken heart. We can let that force blind us, make us tear down the castle and let in the hoards and barbarians who have no place in keeping our thoughts straight and on the reason why we love the way we do, or we keep firm and be the artist of our own destiny.

In Diana Rein’s latest album, Queen Of My Castle, the listener is introduced to the strength, the directness, and the subtly of sound that songs such as Yes I Sing The Blues, Walking Along, Pure Soul, Get Down, Chill Of The Night, Time’s Ticking Away and the album’s title track, Queen of my Castle all parade with honour and feeling.

The album is not just a record, it is a promise, that rare sense of undertaking that comes together with a purpose to keep the castle fortified, and to show others how to take on the task of building their own rather than living in the shadows of other’s sneering expectation.

A marvellously endowed album, one that renews the passion for Diana Rein.

Diana Rein’s Queen Of My Castle is out now via Gulf Coast Records.

Ian D. Hall