The latest reviews from Kevin Bryan.

Whitehorse, "Leave No Bridge Unburned" ( Six Shooter Records)- The gifted husband and wife duo of Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland may hail from cold and snowy  Canada  but a rich vein  of the purest Southern Gothic runs through much of their finest work  as they unveil a series of compellingly dramatic narratives for your listening pleasure. The duo have expanded their sound a little for "Leave No Bridge Unburned," bringing in keyboards and real drummers to embellish the classic Americana of "Downtown,"  "Baby What's Wrong?" and  "Sweet Disaster," the latter echoing the memorable intro of The Zombies' 1968 U.S. hit, "Time of the Season."

 

White Plains, "The Deram Records Singles Collection" (Cherry Red Records)- Cherry Red's latest retrospective  traces the short lived but highly lucrative recording career of White Plains, the  largely anonymous session band  which enjoyed a  brief run of chart success during the early seventies.  The  London based outfit functioned as  a vehicle for the commercially orientated creations of songwriters such as Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway of "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing" fame,  and this easy on the ear  retrospective rounds up the all the A and B sides that their constantly changing line-up recorded for Decca's Deram offshoot  during this period, including infectious ditties such as "My Baby Loves Lovin'," "Julie Do Ya Love Me" and "When You Are A King."

 

"Bubbling Under The American Charts 1959-1963" (Fantastic Voyage)-This wide ranging anthology from compiler Austin Powell explores some of the  recordings  which notched up healthy sales in America during the late fifties and early sixties but narrowly failed to find their way into the lower reaches of the singles charts. Many of the ninety  tracks are deservedly obscure but a surprising number of pop, country and soul luminaries also contribute to the proceedings , including Johnny Cash, Sam Cooke and the twelve year old Stevie Wonder, who chips in with his 1962 debut single, "I Call It Pretty Music But The Old People Call It The Blues."

 

"Greatest Ever Classic Rock - The Definitive Collection" (Union Square Music)- To describe this 3CD set as "definitive" would be a slight exaggeration, but the good people at Union People have certainly pulled out all the stops in assembling this compelling showcase for all that's best in old fashioned guitar based  rock. The star studded track listing includes contributions from  a whole host of seventies rock luminaries led by Free, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top and Jethro Tull, and no compilation of this type could ever really be complete without the inclusion of Deep Purple's 1972 anthem, "Smoke on the Water."

 

Alexander Rudin, "Cello" (Melodiya Records)- This absorbing vehicle for the talents of Alexander Rudin draws on archive recordings made in 1978 and 1983 and finds the highly regarded Russian cellist tackling works by Beethoven, Klengel, Myaskovsky, J.S.Bach and the latter's direct Baroque contemporary Giuseppe Valentini. Rudin's treatment of  Beethoven's  variations on the theme from Mozart's "Magic Flute"  is  particularly attractive, capturing the essence of the gifted Muscovite's  historically aware approach to music-making.