Review: Simon McBride - Crossing the Line

Simon McBride - Crossing the Line (Nugene Records)

If 2011’s well-received live album ‘Nine Lives’ served to benchmark the burgeoning career of the 33-year-old Belfast-born singer guitarist, then ‘Crossing the Line’ must be intended as the move that puts Simon McBride firmly to the front of the ‘future blues stars’ file.

Over the course of three studio albums and the company of some serious heavyweights (Jeff Beck, Joe Bonamassa, Derek Trucks – it don’t get heavier) his songwriting has matured noticeably and both his singing and playing have reached that level of assurance that marks the difference between hope and expectation.

There will be inevitable comparisons with notable forebears Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore, and whilst there’s an impressive stylistic range here from the incendiary (‘Lead Us Away’) to the smouldering (‘Starve this Fever’) to the epic (‘One More Try’) to the acoustic (‘A Rock and A Storm’), it’s all filtered through a slick production job that suggests he’d favour Moore’s mainstream audience over Gallagher’s integrity.

Jools Holland probably beckons, but who would begrudge him his day in the sun?

www.simonmcbride.net

www.nugenerecords.com

Neil B.