Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
No places a wager with more sincerity than the person who sees the value in the High Risk, Low Reward scenario. Anybody can back a sure thing and look as if they are geniuses, most people slap the winner on the back after the race has been won, but for those that back the near impossible with the knowledge that all that matters is they have succeeded, those are the ones to whom you throw admiring glances at.
High Risk, Low Reward, it’s not for everyone, but then life doesn’t offer adventure and feelings of unrequited love to those that are happy playing poker for pennies or cents; instead the Universe steps in and shows its hand, tells those with blood and fire in their veins that they cannot hope to beat its aces high move, and waits for the player to smile; and Ryan Perry is more than able to match whatever the Universe lays down on the green baize and then produce, from out of nowhere, the true winning hand.
Across such symbols of expression and heart aching beauty as Ain’t Afraid To Eat Alone, Homesick, One Thing’s For Certain, the superb album title-track High Risk, Low Reward, the dominating Evil Is Going On and Hard Times, the reason why Ryan Perry sings the Blues becomes abundantly clear, not only does his voice and demeanor run with style and grace, but he breathes in the surroundings, the dust, the trust, the long-established genre’s eye contact and subtle pillow talk with the groove of the Muse. By immersing himself into these qualities he is able to move freely, he is at one with the Blues in a way that is reminiscent of early Clapton or the joy of cool that comes from Robert Cray.
It is the leap of faith that the Universe believes none of us are capable of taking to which the wager with some is lost, its own high risk strategy goes astray, and opposite, cool, calm, and very much collected is the one with talent exploding, like a raging ocean, it is the one to whom willing to ride the rapid and the ferocity of hard work that sees a champion rise.
To gamble on a sure thing is to trust your gut, to place every drop of emotion on the high risk, is in the end the one that will benefit your soul the most.
Ian D. Hall