Steel Threads
Album: Timing Is Everything
Label: Rock Sector
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.steelthreadsmusic.co.uk

If there can be such a thing as a folk rock power trio, Steel Threads pretty much fits the bill. Though this being folk rock, we'll forsake the drummer for a fiddle and make the bass the stand up variety. The midlands have had a great reputation for the folk rock bands over the last forty years and I don't think it's coincidental that Steel Threads are based in Coventry, close to their influences, but just that bit far enough down the road to have developed their own accent.

Whilst part of that accent comes from the powerful vocalisation it's the fly-by-wire fiddle from Chris Woodworth that really informs the sound. That's not to say the guitar of Neil Wardleworth and bass of Stuart Eastham are marginalised, far from it, this is a power trio and there's no space for stragglers.

You think you've sussed a song and suddenly Eastham has gone on a string run on the bass and it's almost like you've entered a different song. It's not a trick you can use too often and Steel Threads don't, but it's a great example of how the band think their music through.

"Timing Is Everything" is a title that says it all really. This an album that finds a real balance between the hard and fast and the slow and thoughtful, sometimes a lot more rock than folk and at other times throwing an opposite move.

Steal Threads are a band that are more in your face than a lot of from the folk world, but it's a way to get noticed and one that can't be ignored, music with power and passion and just a smidge, a smidge of arrogance to give it that cutting edge.

Steel Threads haven't just taken their influences from the golden days of folk rock, you can hear the likes of Crowded House in the sound. The band may be barely a year old, but they've got the feel of a band that are just comfortable in their skin, they're playing out of it.

Neil King