Reviewed by Tony Cummings

It's always a pleasure when a top rate album, unheralded at its time of release, gets remastered and reissued. In the '70s and '80s MacDougall was a fine guitarist who played lots of sessions for Larry Norman's Solid Rock outfit (and played with Larry when he visited Greenbelt in 1980) and who in 1981 released this thoroughly engaging mixture of pop and rock, all with that smooth West coast sound. The album, though Grammy nominated, never picked up the big sales it deserved. Now, MacDougall himself has reissued 'This Side Of Heaven' and wherever you look and listen you'll hear good things, be it Beau and Richie Furay duetting on "Father" or Tom Howard's piano and Hadley Hockensmith's guitar adding a mellow underlay to Beau's cover of Andrae Crouch's "Cause I Fell In Love". Years back Cross Rhythms' Mike Rimmer reviewed the vinyl enthusing, "From the impact of the opening title cut and the bouncy power pop of 'Smile' through the modern reworking of Proverbs 31 on 'Virtuous Woman' to the funky groove of 'Good News' this album is packed with fine songs and production." Beau has thoughtfully added some nice pics to the CD package and the only thing that could have improved the release is a vinyl issue.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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