Alan West
Album: All Things For A Reason
Label: Neo
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.alanwest.co.uk

The last twenty years or so has seen a veritable explosion in the popularity of Country music. There are many reasons for this not least of all the quality of the current day artists. The old days when songs were written about dogs and parents dying are long gone. A somewhat cynical description of Country music in the old days perhaps and not one that I subscribe to but it was said to me by a good friend a few years ago and is fairly stereo typical of the old view of C&W. Recording standards have improved greatly as has the quality of the musicianship. That is not to say that the previous Country offerings were poor, they were just very predictable. No more though!

The vast majority of successful Country stars are quite naturally American and most are based in the heartland of the music, Nashville. It is pretty rare to find an artist that has made it by not being from either of these bases. New Zealand born Keith Urban is one exception and now I would most certainly include Englishman Alan West as another.

Alan will be well known to devotees of Country music in the UK but less well known to those, like me, on the periphery of the genre. So what makes him so special? Years of experience, wonderful arrangements, great songs and a voice to make you sit up and listen. The voice is a mix of Kenny Rogers and the now sadly departed Dan Seals. Melancholy at times, very musical, and a total joy to listen to.

This album, the third studio album in Alan's career, was recorded in Nashville and spotlights Alan's talent in volumes. His writing with Steve Black, a performing co-partner too, is both imaginative and moving at times. For true emotion listen to the lyrics of "Numbers." The backing is also something to wonder at. "It pays to be" is what I would regard as being a typical Country song. A foot tapper with a bit of slide guitar thrown in. "Hillbilly Woodbines" starts with a superb few bars of fiddle and paints a wonderful picture of smoking and drinking in the backwoods of America. Not sure I have ever heard a cigarette advert in the title of a song before!

My favourite track on the album is a song that you will have all heard before sung by John Denver. "Take me home country roads." However, forget what you may have heard before. Alan's treatment of this iconic piece of music is truly wonderful and takes the song to a whole new level using minor instead of major chords. It just takes the song to a whole new level.

BBC's Bob Harris wrote "I have a very strong theory about all of this which has guided me through all the time I have spent surrounded by music, and that feeling is that if you are true to music, the music will be true to you and Alan West is the very much the embodiment of that for me." Coming from a well respected man such as Bob, those words must be music to Alan's ears.

This is an album that should be held in the library or PC of all Country music lovers and listened to at regular intervals. It is pure quality and will sound just as good in years to come.

Rory Stanbridge