Reviewed by Paul Keeble

This album is built around the exquisite acoustic guitar playing of Northern Ireland's Colin Burns. There are five solo guitar instrumentals, four voice and guitar songs, and two poems by the American slam poet and Soul Survivor favourite Peter Nevland with guitar backing, leaving three tracks which add a rhythm section. The album opens with "Selah", a short instrumental, leading into "I Wait For You" which adds drums and bass to complement one of the album's strongest songs. The instrumental "Mountain Calling" is reminiscent of some of Bruce Cockburn's work - I can pay no higher compliment! It is followed by my favourite track, "Last Train Home" with a great shuffle groove and nice harmonica. "Whisper And Pray" adds tasteful piano to the guitar. The inclusion of the two poems, "For The King" and album closer "Linger", is a nice touch. Lyrically (where applicable) these are mostly songs of personal devotion, but with some nice ideas and imagery, and mostly steering clear of the Worship Songwriter's List of Standard Phrases. Colin's voice isn't the strongest and at times his tuning is a bit off (eg, "Sweet Lightning"), but mostly it is effective and individual - think Graham Kendrick's early albums - suiting the songs well. It's all well recorded with a warm, transparent production. Colin is clearly a great guitarist, but there are places on a couple of the solo tracks where I detected slight timing faults (eg, "Other Worlds" - also a weaker song). Maybe I'm too fussy or my internal clock is faulty, or maybe the studio clock was ticking. A case for stricter quality control perhaps? But don't let my quibbling put you off what is a pleasant and relaxing listen, refreshingly different, and well packaged with striking artwork also by Colin.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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