Album review

Grant Lyle

So There

added: 11 Feb 2013 // release date: 11 Apr 2012 // label:
reviewer: Daniel Davidson-Amadi

Here’s a man who knows something about smooth Blues. Lyle’s ‘So There’ CD is a very comfortable composition that uses beautiful and mesmeric instrumentality to surround Lyle’s glittering guitar jives – from the atmospheric enchantment that is the intro, ‘Impressions’, to the deep country Blues ‘Levee Moan’.

As you can probably fathom, the music contains complicated riffs and twangs from several variations of the most famous member of the chordophone pack – acoustic, electric and resonator – that instantly overwhelm the fundamentality of the percussion and background piano. There are howling solos dotted around tracks that give this album that classic blues rock authenticity of the genre’s heyday. Often Lyle takes time out to show his considerable chops as if auditioning for Muddy Waters. These little interludes sound like the backing score for a dirty smoky dive.

Yet there are other songs are considerably upbeat compared to the sullen hopelessness of what people have become so accustomed to from movie-land. The drums sound large and industrial; the guitars are less convoluted – it’s as if Lyle is attempting to make Blues as cool and relevant as it once was again, only more inclusively so. Or at least something you can dance to rather than drink away your troubles to in a dingy bar.

Meanwhile, Grant Lyle personally fronts the vocals of the songs with a deep rich rock voice that carries and supports his material well. His lyrics are practical and his cadences completely unblemished like a youthful Clapton. Eric would be proud!

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