Bob Kirkpatrick
Album: London Road...And The Hits Just Keep On Coming...
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 11
Website: www.bobkirkpatrick.co.uk

There is something that folk music does so much better than other genres, songs of friends, family and simple observations of life and Bob Kirkpatrick is a master of it. "London Road...And The Hits Just Keep Coming..." is his fourth cd and is lesson in turning the everyday into the extraordinary.

You can tell by the way he shrinks down the ...and the hits just keep coming... that his tongue is in his cheek when he refers to that concept, but in someways that sells him short. The thing is with a lot of hits is that they have no real staying power, they fill an immediate need, to be replaced by another song that fulfils the same need. Hits rarely strike a chord within you, because you can't relate to them.

It's the songs you relate to that really hold sway, when you delve into you collection do you look for the best of collections or the albums that really move you. "London Road" isn't just an album that moves you, it packs up the boxes and helps you sort through the baggage.

I'd guess the chances of you knowing the same people as Bob are relatively low, you probably don't walk down the same streets or drink in the same pubs, but it feels like you do. You've been there as your kids grow up, you may have been through a divorce and still have feelings for your partner. Friends may have drifted in and out of your life as they've moved away to pursue their own goals.

That's not to say Bob ignores the big stories, the financial meltdown, unexpected horrors from around the world, he doesn't, he incorporates them into songs about families and that makes them sound all the more real.

A man, a guitar and reflections on a modern world that we've all grown up in, he even manages to include Christmas song and an all year around version of the same song as part of the set. "London Road...And The Hits Just Keep Coming..." is one of those albums you will return to when the mood takes you.

Neil King