RGG February 2016 - p.13
life on the road condensed into the lyrics of one
song, '1000 years' grips you with it's elegant
piano work and heart string tugging blues
tragedy story juxtapositioned over an upbeat
edgy but happy sounding composition. 'Could
Not Say No' I'm hoping was recorded whilst
Rebecca Downes was dressed as Jessica
Rabbit; it's lounge style mood, seductive singing;
delicate jazz guitar stabs make this tune a real
gem stone. 'Mommas Gotta Gun' has such a
well delivered catchy commercial chorus and a
clever wonderful bridge section; to me this is like
a secret sequel to 'Basement Of My Heart' but
that's just my opinion.
Title track 'Believe' is the album closer and it's a
real masterpiece; whilst every tune on the album
is filled with a diverse range of cool sensational
guitar licks she's ended this one with a jaw
dropping blues rock epic. The final track is
arguably Rebecca's very own 'Free Bird' which
could just go on forever (but doesn't of course)
which makes sense as to why it closes what can
only be described as a very strong and
enjoyable blues release.
Overall this is an intelligent album driven by
lyrics sung with natural honesty and a heap of
good old fashioned passion; musically this will
make a lot of guitar geeks happy and a clear
signature style is visible throughout. You can see
why Rebecca Downes is slowly becoming one
of the UK's biggest blues names and why some
people are crowning her as the new
Blues saviour
.
facebook.com/rebeccadownes • twitter.com/bekah_music
‘Believe’ will be released in physical
CD & digital formats on March 4th
via Mad Hat Records.
r
gg
since
1995
Review by Nick J Townsend
