Various - This Side Of The River download mp3 flac

Ye olde charming English folk record strikes again on this endearing studio compilation featuring seven different UK artists, highlighted by some attractive female vocals. All fourteen tracks are strong and several fall into the category of absolutely precious, particularly New Wine’s ‘Time Flies By’, The Bluebirds’ ‘Make Me Like You’ and Spiral’s ‘Precious Lord’. A bit more progressive the others is the wonderful duo of Gimli and Gloin (named after Tolkien characters) with the solemn ‘The Watchet Sailor’ and the recorder-backed Scots-Irish instrumental ‘Cuckoo’s Nest/Trunkles’. Pam Burgess of the group Aslan performs two Barry Crompton songs, ‘Fisher Of Men’ and ‘Love Changed Me’. Dave & Jan (Bradfield) introduce electric guitar on their three songs: ‘The Pharisee’, the surreal ‘Hands’ and the hard-hitting ‘Walk In The Light’. Other tracks include The Bluebirds doing Sydney Carter’s ‘Judas & Mary’, Spiral with ‘Bind Us Together’, and two nice acoustic songs by Dave Mansfield (‘Love, Peace, Joy’, ‘All I Need’). A quiet yet excellent work as only the British can do it, and one of the top releases for this highly collected small Christian label. Leaves one wishing each group could have had a full-length lp. (The Archivist, 4th edition by Ken Scott).