All the songs on Kingfisher Blue are written by Kath Reade, who sings and plays guitar on all the tracks. A Time for Magic is a very evocative story, a new twist on an elfin tale. Jean Deakin joins her on backing vocals. Quite apart from being well sung, played and arranged, it leaves one thinking. Cowboy in my Soul, on the other hand, would fit like a glove in a boozy bar being belted out by a happily drunken crowd. From Grimm’s Fairy Tales to Country and Western on one batch is quite a width of ability in one writer. Babe You're so Cold is written with painful experience of disappointed love.

Tom McConville plays backing fiddle on Hang there Hawk, his soaring strings illustrating and expanding on the words about a hunting bird catching dinner near the motorway. He also joins on The Steam Locomotive. This ticks along, detailing emotions this technology' of another age provoke. Rob Van Sante plays guitar on eight of the tracks and sings backing vocals on seven in addition to sharing the production of the record. Shaun Reade plays the rather tasty keyboards on Warm Like Mine. She is working with an experienced, talented team.

A Rock To Cling To is a non-gospel gospel song that verse-by-verse paces from alternative to alternative to God. The track ends with the faith lost protagonist looking for faith, which is a neat and careful piece of writing. Life on the Canal is the song equivalent of a video camera of a narrow-boat trip with current wildlife drifting past. The title track Kingfisher Blue which follows couldn't be a greater contrast while staying in a related theme. It is spoken poem over a keyboard backing. It is not bothered with the past or the future, simply lives in the present. I like it. It is very unusual, like the record.

John Denny