Pure Pop & The Sounds Of The Texas Hill Country
PHILIP S WOLF | SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CA. USA | 07/06/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is the package to purchase, for all who want to discover the wonderful music of Iain Matthews. Here, are two of Iain's finest recorded moments.
"Pure & Crooked" from 1990, is Iain's pop/rock masterpiece. Featuring the songs: "Like Dominoes", "A Hardly Innocent Mind", "New Shirt", "Bridge Of Cherokee", "Rains Of 62" "Perfect Timing" & "This Town Is No Lady" and performed to perfection by Iain and crew, you are going to have quite a time to find a batch of songs that rival these. The cover of Peter Gabriel's: "Mercy Street" is a highlight, on an album, full of them. When you add Iain's voice over the music of these tunes, you soar to places that other artists only dream of. Out of the dozens of records, that I have found by this artist over the past four decades, this is the record that I enjoy the most from Iain.
In 1992, the wonderful record: "Skeleton Keys" was released. This is the most: "Texas" sounding record, that he would ever produce. The songs are really fantastic here, with: "Jumping Off The Roof", "Compass And Chart", "True Location Of The Heart", "Back Of The Bus", "The Ties We Break", "Every Crushing Blow" & "Living In Reverse" as the standout tracks. With the use of dorbos, fiddles, acoustic guitars and mandolins, Iain crafts a work of old-time America, of dance halls and golden fields at sunset. These are stories of people who are now ghosts, or they could be standing next to you tommorrow at the bus stop in that crowded city. Again, this record features Iain at his crystal clear best, he is simply an amazing singer.
After you listen to: "Pure & Crooked" and "Skeleton Keys" you are gonna be searching for more music from this great artist. He is just too good to be ignored any longer....This is great music!
FIVE STARS!!!
"
Two of the best
Friendlycard | Norfolk, UK | 05/08/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Though Iain Matthews has released upwards of 25 albums, I rank these two amongst his very best. Their re-release on a two-CD set was thus very welcome indeed.
Iain has long been respected as one of the very best vocalists around. In my opinion, his music took a decisive turn in 1988 with 'Walking a Changing Line', a beautiful, ethereal set of Jules Shear compositions. This was released on the Windham Hill label and, last time I checked, was unavailable. Get it if you can.
After that, Iain's music hit and sustained new highs. After 'Walking' came the first of these two albums, 'Pure and Crooked', which was a delight at the time (1990) - it had seemed too much to hope that he could improve on 'Walking', but he did. The overall standard of composition and performance on this album is so high that it's difficult to pick favourite tracks - 'A Hardly Innocent Mind' stands out, but that could be said of so many other tracks on the album, such as 'New Shirt', 'Rains of '62'....the list goes on.
Next came 'Skeleton Keys', which took up where 'Pure' left off. Again, this is another set of lovely songs, beautifully performed. Here, though again the standard is very high throughout, I'd highlight 'God's Empty Chair' and 'Every Crushing Blow'.
These are great albums, and the sound quality is better on this new BGO release than on the original issues. The result is a beautiful combo which can be recommended to any admirer of Iain Matthews."
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1