Mystic (label)
26 September 2011 (released)
11 September 2011
The phrase that comes immediately to mind on listening to Virgil McMahon and his band’s debut album is ‘Tour De Force’. A simply natural and powerfully expressed debut that shows just how far Virgil has come and how quickly. What blows me away is the maturity of the band and the development from the fantastically exciting bunch of kids I saw in Barnet in January 2010.
They seem to cover all the angles of Bluesey Rock with some real blue-collar Walter Troutesque like ‘Working Man’ to the Southern Style ‘Low Down And Dirty’ or the headlong blast of ‘Racing With Life’. They throw in a couple of tracks about ladeez they couldn’t possibly be old enough to have met with ‘Backstabber’ and ‘Bad Girl’ and they move into howling Blues with ‘88’. The closer , ‘Silver Giver; is in Gary Moore or Peter Green territory with echoes of ‘Need Your Love So Bad’ in a stunning instrumental.
All the way through the album Virgil’s guitar is superb. He solos like a demon and when he plays it soulful, as on ‘Silver Giver’ he has the ability, like Peter Green, to take you down, deep into your soul and experience exactly what this young man is trying to say. He is 19 for pete’s sake! No nineteen year old should be able to do that.
The rest of the band are no slouches either: younger brother Gabriel is a fine drummer and getting better every time I hear his work and Jack Timmis gives the band a fluid and driving bass line.
Virgil and The Accelerators have had ‘the treatment’ in touring with Oli Brown & Joanne Shaw Taylor and opening for Black Country Communion, they were signed by Mystic after some frantic bidding by a number of labels and they have been mixed and produced by Steve Rispin at Liscombe Park. Otis Grand has been part of Virgil’s development and they have been given chances based entirely on the boys ability to play – and by the cringe they do!
They aren’t, quite, perfect, not yet: that would be a frightening thought. But they are one of the best bands I’ve heard this year – never mind ‘young’ or ‘new’ – and they have really turned out a, yes, tour de force. The future looks limitless!
