DAVIE ANDERSON - Love So Strong
Brechin All Records CDBAR035
Davie’s a competent musician and songwriter, and I enjoyed tracks such as Banks Of The Girvan (sung to the air of The Shearin’s No For You). But this is not the easiest of CDs to review; it moves from Country to Folk to Easy Listening with little perceptible change in pace or delivery, and the result is that the listener doesn’t really engage with the performer when playing the CD.
This is the sort of music that’s ideal for a pub full of tourists – it does give a taste of Scottishness, and the electric/orchestral backings work well in that environment; but if you’re actually listening to the songs, then the singer needs to be singing the story, especially in the case of something like Freedom Come All Ye, which demands passion and involvement.
I’m sure this will sell well at less folk-oriented venues, but it didn’t really work for me.
www.davieandersonmusic.com
John Waltham
This review appeared in Issue 137 of The Living Tradition magazine