Iain Morrison
Album: To The Horizon, Sir
Label: Peat Fire
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.iainmorrisonmusic.com/

As soon as you hear the opening bars of "To The Horizon, Sir" you know that you are not only going to be listening to album that is stripped back, at times it's going to be raw and exposed and you also know that like a scab, nothing is going to stop you picking at it to see what else you uncover.

It's not until you get to the end of the album that you suddenly reflect just how many different instruments have joined the guitar and vocals of protagonist Iain Morrison and given the album an underlying richness that you hadn't expected, particularly where acoustic bass and cello have been used.

Glasgow based musician Iain Morrison has one of those voices, which though strong, is capable of giving an impression of underlying vulnerability, the stoic hardman brought down by love and doubt, fighting himself all the way. It's no surprise to discover that he got to play the part of Orpheus when Anais Mitchell's "Hadestown" rolled into Glasgow.

This is an album that rolls along at a laidback pace, and yet when you reach the end of the majority of the folk-blues based numbers you feel the time seems to have gone too quickly. That is one of the many contradictions that run through the album. There are times when "To The Horizon, Sir" feels disarming and yet at the same time comforting.

Ultimately it's those juxtapositions that make this album such a fascinating listen. Morrison is an excellent writer, one that makes you both listen and think and that's why this is such a good album to take time out for.

Neil King