Album Review: “Greek Street Friday” – Ian Shaw. Words: Sammy Stein.

I first heard Ian Shaw in 2021 when I reviewed Hannah Horton’s album ‘Inside Out’ on which Shaw was the guest vocalist on tracks ‘Frozen Light’ and ‘Breathing Out’. Horton told me, “I mentioned I was recording a new album and he (Shaw) offered to take a listen and then wrote the lyrics for ‘Frozen …

Single Review: “I Wish You Well” – Chidi Digital and ROT8TIONS

This is an instrumental of sublime levels… The drums are dusty and warm, reminding you of old jazz records, fused with a vinyl crackle, and it just whisks me back to listening to records on a really good hi fi system, it just sounds so natural. You can’t always get that with a sample of …

Blog interview: Becky Crosby

Hi Becky! How are you?  I’m good! It’s been a couple of busy weeks, but I’ve been having a fun time with my single release, birthday show and the warm weather really kicking in! Congratulations on the release of “Love Like Medicine.” How does it feel?  Thank you! It feels great to be able to …

Single Review: “Ready” – Cory Wong and Ben Rector

This track screams summer soul!  Wow!  From the top, guitar virtuoso Cory Wong opens fire with muted guitar playing 16ths although I get the feeling that may be delays, and the guitar sound over that comes in over the top playing the main riff.. I can’t even get my head around it.. it’s clean, it’s …

Single Review: “War Baby” – Tom Robinson

As it’s Tom’s birthday today I decided to review one of his biggest hits.  This song has so much soul, mixing jazzy rhythms with a beautiful Rhodes piano and a saxophone solo – oh don’t forget the crunchy guitars… I got introduced to this song quite late in life, as I was discussing Fresh On …

Single Review: “Wonder” – Mikey J

This is a track from Australian artist Mikey J, and it’s…. Bluesy! It’s a slow tempo track from his new album “Wondering”, and it’s lyrically it’s a reassurance about how his love would never change. It starts off with a set of questions:  “Do you ever wonder if this life would  be the same? If …

Album Review: “The Synesthete” – Joe Adhemar

Joe Adhemar has released a new album. Let’s break it down shall we? “The Synesthete” available on Bandcamp   Found Out  This is a great track to kick off the album with, very bluesy, I like the way vocals have a slight delay to it, the main guitar riff has chromatic notes in there, and …

Single Review: “That’ll Be The Day” – Buddy Holly

As tomorrow is 63 years since Buddy Holly, along with Richie Havens and The Big Bopper died tragically in a plane crash I thought I’d commemorate this with my favourite Buddy Holly song.  I have memories of jamming this on the piano with my friend Simon and him singing and playing on a battered acoustic …