Reviewed by Simon Eden

Think of US cowboys out on the plains with their horses, beans cooking on an open fire, and wolves howling at the moon. A plaintive harmonica plays as you look up at the night sky, thinking "It feels like its gonna rain". So you have the scene of track seven, "Coyote's Lament" where all you get is Denes singing the same line repeatedly, as a dog howls in the background. The impression you get from the album cover is that Denes' dog which is pictured with him is outstandingly good at harmonic backing vocals. It is only the credits that admit it is actually Denes himself doing the "howls and yips". The majority of the album has a chilled out finger plucked guitar instead of a dog and vocals that are heavily influence by Dylan in his acoustic US country folk period. There are occasional outstanding lyrics such as "Check your messages again before you die" poking fun at Blackberry email addicts, and "You can buy salvation from a fallen angel but you'll have to learn to live with the burn". If you like Dylanesque country ballads, this is music to play at your next camp fire or maybe at the end of an evening's BBQ.

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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