Aynsley Lister

Over the years there have been some great Blues/Rock guitarists ' Rory Gallagher, Gary Moore, Duane Allman spring readily to mind ' and the lists today are possibly as healthy as they have been for years with the likes of Walter Trout, Joe Bonamassa and Derek Trucks now coming into the pantheon of the greats. Aynsley Lister has been threatening to take the current British Blues scene to these stratospheric heights for some time and 'Upsidedown' has finally achieved all that he has promised over the last five or six years.

The huge kick drum that announces the opener 'Find my way home' and the subsequent riff are a declaration that this is going to be a full-speed, all-balls-out assault on the senses. Lister plays fast and strong and the piece dares the listener to sit instead of getting up and making fools of themselves.

Lister’s vocals are strong and impassioned and throughout the album he sings with conviction and clarity.
All of the songs were written by Lister and he has varied the style between the out and out rockers like 'Find my way' or the title track, power ballads like 'Always tomorrow' and pure and lovely ballads such as 'Beautiful (Keiana’s Song)'. His acoustic playing on 'Rain' show how much he has developed as a guitarist.
I get the feeling that Aynsley has been learning how to put all of his skills together into one package and the years of touring and playing have taught him how to develop his ideas into killer tracks and how to pace an album so that the listener keeps listening.

It helps that the band that he now has around him are extremely talented individuals but the power he gets from Alex Thomas on drums and Jo Nichols’ fluid and funky basslines allow his songs to be presented as well as he could have wished for.

In the past Aynsley Lister has possibly suffered from a determination to play his music, his way but 'Upsidedown' shows he was right to persevere.