Chris Ridgeway
Album: Three Small Things
Label: Newsoundwales
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.chrisridgeway.co.uk

A stalwart of the Welsh music scene, somehow it's taken Chris Ridgeway the best part of twenty five years to make his debut solo album, but those years spent in and leading bands, most recently Cakehole Presley have really informed "Three Small Things"

It's an album that stops off at many points on the acoustic spectrum, folk, Americana, old timey and even hints of cabaret and rock. He also manages to combine the anthemaic and the more intimate and personal.

The album starts off with "Bluebirds Are Blue" a song title that in most parts of the country would provoke the reaction, duh, but that would be to miss the Welsh heritage and more important the nickname of Cardiff's beloved football team and the reactions to a rich interloper with no sense of the proud traditions of the club and what they mean to the locals.

The thing I really like about "Three Small Things" are the way Chris Ridgeway lets his passions pour out across the album, giving each song a chance to breathe, but still acknowledging it's place in the team, I'm not totally sure the eleven tracks is coincidental.

Either way, it has allowed Ridgeway to showcase his songwriting talents and to spread his wings that little bit further, with just his name on the tin he can allow himself to explore his songs in a bit more of a personal way. The result is a cracking album and one that makes you feel at home. A personal jubilee marked, job done.

Neil King