Independent (label)
05 December 2015 (released)
02 February 2016
Connie Lush has been around for a while (over 20 years!) and while she has a stellar reputation among Blues fans she has never quite hit the heights she deserves.
She has changed the band up, still with her husband Terry Harris on bass, and brought in the eminent Roy Martin (ex-Aretha) on drums and Steve Wright on guitars and keys which also gives her the benefit of his producing and engineering the album. When you add Wayne Proctor on mix and mastering by Jon Astley there are NO excuses for a less than brilliant recording – now it’s just up to the music.
Frankly, from the first note to the last, this is magical. Ms Lush’s voice is on top form and the band smoulder behind her.
The pace of the album is slow and steady but it never feels as though it is moribund or dull. Her voice has all the soul and emotion you could wish for.
On ‘Don’t Cry For Me’ the band create an intense, dark and closed in soundscape with her voice seemingly coming out of the blackness while on the magnificent opener, ‘Lonely Boy’, the solitary guitar and tremulous vocal that kick off the album send chills down your spine – I defy anyone to listen to this song without feeling the sense of solitariness in the lonely boy’s heart.
It isn’t easy to find a flaw in the album – the playing is superb, Connie’s voice is better than I have heard her in years and I found myself cueing it up again as soon as the last notes of ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ had faded.
If all you know of Blues singers is the loud and bragging style of so many then this will be a shock to the system. Connie Lush is a real singer and the songs here have real melodies and touches of subtlety that hardly ever get a real airing.
There are some great Blues voices out there – Joanne Shaw Taylor, Dani Wilde, Chantel McGregor – and Connie Lush is the matriarch of them all.
A truly excellent album.
