Reviewed by Dave Massey

This album owes a lot to the likes of Robert Cray and with the talents of Alex Acuna -session musician extraordinaire it should have been something to shout about, and if Q Stone had thrown in a few more tracks like "Western Paradise' it would have been! A meaty blues/rock track with an enormous percussion intro in which Alex brushes the cobwebs off his bongos with a few riffs that would be well at home in a bit of fusion. The guitar solo (Hessu Silvennoinen) rises out of the mediocrity of earlier tracks with the unexpectedness of a cold wet flannel in the face and to my surprise was just as good on Talking About Love' - a Cray clone if ever I saw one. Mikko Kuustonen on vocals has a great blues voice with enough hard-core down his gullet to add another lane to the M25 (well maybe not that much) -- but he can turn it on well enough to please a few blues diehards. It's a good album, abut there's no mark of Q Stones own personality stamped on it...maybe that's too much to ask -- it is Scandinavian blues after all!

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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