Un-equalled southern tinged fresh, chunky, juicy and soulful
Louise Dontigny | Ottawa, Ont CANADA | 10/16/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is a superb cd just as all of Gary Hirstius' cd's are. New Orleans tinged roots-rock. A variety of styles from hook-filled rockers to R&B to soulful sing-alongs to smooth ballads. Timeless well-written reflective, introspective songs, hauntingly beautiful melodies, outstanding rough and vibrant voice, professional sound. Gary Hirstius is a brilliant musician, an exceptional artist. You will find yourself on a roller-coaster ride of emotions and humming formerly unfamiliar songs; "Hand Of The Angels" and "Never Stopped Loving You" are such songs for me. Two favourite of mine are "Temporary Secret", the title song of this cd which he also does on his Slightly Out Of Focus cd in a slower tempo (both versions are great), and "Heatbeat Away" which are on both of these cd's as well.
In Spring of 2008, I bought all four of Gary's cd's and I absolute love listening to them; they are my favourite roots-rock cd's. For a whole year, whenever I went to put music on, I would always reach for Gary's cd's first. I still play them regularly; I never get tired of listening them. Everything he does is excellent and I love it all, even the songs that have a country flavour to them; a genre I don't usually care for except for a few artists, but his songs are so good, I enjoy them all tremendously. His rendition of Neil Young's "Losing Eng", with Teresa Anderson singing along, is reminiscent of early country music and a real gem (this is on the Down River cd).
I don't usually do cd reviews but I just had to do one for Gary's cds because there weren't any here and I didn't find much elsewhere either. Gotta spread this good stuff around!
"
Track Listings (15) - Disc #1