Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Uniqueness is often greeted with either a sense of cosmic adoration, or more than likely in a world that thinks nothing of claiming that jealousy is a virtue, with suspicion and fear. How often did we as children hear the adult demand, “Why can’t you be more like…”? How often do we allow others who have no inkling of what we have gone through to become the person we are, change us without a single proclamation of refusal, without a single uttered Hey! in annoyance at their lack of boundary acceptance.

We are tormented by society’s view, we must be accepted for what the cliques and focus groups dictate, because the belief in safety in numbers is not just a phrase designed to comfort, it is there as a reminder that by being part of the group, you are easier to control, your vision is relegated to committee and agency, and slowly any shred of individuality is forsaken.

Hey! – the statement of indignation is a powerful tool in our self-preserve, and one that takes courage to speak aloud with an authority against a tide of false acceptance, the reserve of ill meaning tolerance.

Hey! is Steven Casper & Cowboy Angst declaration, it is the music of souls that acknowledgement of the shining brilliance that comes from the pursuit of individuality, whilst at all times immersing yourself into a world of the polymath, the teacher of all that is to be investigated, the greeting of being around those who don’t wish to curtail or stem your emotions but who wish to aid you, to flood your responses with a salute and cheer.

Well versed in not being tied to any distinctive genre, and certainly one that refuses to be installed as flavour of the week, Steven Casper & Cowboy Angst take their own path but acknowledge, even pay homage to the likes of folk, country, Americana, and cosmic twists as tracks such as By Your Side, Cold Dark Hole, Howling At The Moon (Wine And Weed), Motherless Child, and the cover of Bob Dylan’s Absolutely Sweet Marie, declare attention to their cause and produce an album that swings, that grooves, and most of all impresses the need on the listener to think.

History is not made by those who conform, but who are willing to push their own boundaries, and for Steven Casper & Cowboy Angst, Hey! is history in the making.

Steven Casper & Cowboy Angst’s Hey! Is out now and available from Silent City Records. Ian D. Hall