Monday 5 January 2015

Ricky Warwick (The Almighty / Black Star Riders) - Hearts On Trees (2014/15)

Genre - Hard Rock / Acoustic
Label - Pledge Music

Track listing:
01 - Presbyterian Homesick Blues
02 - Tank McCullough Saturdays
03 - Psycho
04 - Hearts On Trees
05 - Said Samson To Goliath
06 - Way Too Cold For Snow
07 - Schwaben Redoubt
08 - The Year Of Living Dangerously
09 - Disasters
10 - '82

Hearts On Trees is the first of two brand spanking new solo albums from former Almighty leader and current Black Star Riders singer Ricky Warwick. This one is an acoustic based album, whilst its sister album, When Patsy Cline Was Crazy (And Guy Mitchell Sang The Blues), is a full blown rock album. The album features its fair share of guest musicians with contributions from Damon Johnson, Joe Elliot, Michael Beattie and Jake Burns, making for a truly special album, if not the longest (the full album only lasts 36 minutes!).
The album opens with Presbyterian Homesick Blues, with its decidedly southern blues feel, a great song making for a good start to the album.
Tank McCullough Saturdays is up next, upping the tempo a little and lightening the mood some what with its reflective and rallying vocal lines.
Psycho follows which has Ricky delivering a cracking version of the song originally written by Leon Payne. The albums title track, Hearts On Trees is up next and really ups the tempo, with the song itself reminiscent in feel of some of the songs on Ricky's previous solo album Belfast Confetti.
Said Samson To Goliath slows the tempo down again, but has a really powerful and rather epic feel about it, one of my favourite songs on the album!
Way Too Cold For Snow follows and what a song it is! This song is definitely my favourite on the album. A slow ballad dealing with heartbreak, but its really, really bloody awesome!
Schwaden Redoubt is up next, a great song that tells a great story about two guys from world war one! An up-tempo song that has tells a great tale of the putting aside of differences.
The Year Of Living Dangerously slows the tempo once again before Disasters picks it up a little with its statements of self independence and intent.
82 close out the album and finds Ricky in a rather reflective mood looking back at the year of 1982.

Hearts On Trees is a nice little album, sure its not ground breaking, but it does deliver 10 great songs, and well to coin a phrase, it does what it says on the tin, and demonstrates gentler side of Ricky's song writing.

A very worthy addition to the Ricky Warwick collection.
Recommended

Rating - 9/10

 

 

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