Stephen Housden - New World Groove
Tracks: Celtic Warrior New World Groove Seaspray Skyline Spanish Castles Siobhan Some Kind Of Strut The Bounty Emerald Blues Soul Surrender Part 1 & 2 Label: Thoughtscape Sounds Year: 1998 Producer: Stephen Housden & Anthony J. Fossey Total Playing Time: 53:27 m:s
Guitarist Stephen Housden (Little River Band & Broken Voices) steps into the limelight with this solo instrumental album.
The prospect of yet another album with a guitarist whizzing up and down the fretboard and generally widdly-diddlying about over a bland background, doesn't exactly fill me with enthusiasm. Well, the good news is that this is more mood music than guitar histrionics. Put it on, have cup of coffee, read a book and leave your tennis racket in the cupboard.
Celtic Warrior sounds like it should be the theme music for something like Xena Princess Warrior. It isn't as Celtic as the title might suggest. New World Groove is similar, but at a more relaxed pace. A choir doing their thing in the background helps to add some variety. That choir crops up again on Seaspray. I'll cut the track by track description short at that point, mainly because I have usually have enough trouble describing songs let alone instrumentals. The other tracks worthy of a mention are Siobhan, the blues/funk of Some Kind Of Strut and the jazzy/funk of Soul Provider.
Rating: 6/7
