Review: Big River – The West Sessions EP

Reviewer: Dan Mann

Big River are a four piece blues rock band hailing from the Garden Of England, namely Kent. What we have here is their debut release, a four track EP entitled ‘The West Sessions‘.

Kicking off with ‘Mama‘ it has from the start an individual sound, Adam Bartholomew‘s vocals having a slightly rough edge to them, injecting some grit, the sort of ‘dark side’ of the blues I personally prefer.

Track two ‘Trouble On Double Time‘ sees guitarist Damo Fawsett showing us what licks he has up his sleeves. Adam’s vocals wobble a bit in the middle, but not enough to detract from the overall sound.

Onto the third song, ‘Hard Came The Rain‘, the band’s rough edged energy comes to the fore, with an almost angst angle to the song. It’s a track worth a repeated visit as it reveals more  the more you listen.

And so to the final track on the EP. It’s a cover of Deep Purple’s ‘When A Blind Man Cries‘. This track has in fact been released by the band as a separate download in aid of The Stroke Association. As I’m sure most of you will agree, cover versions either work or they don’t! Thankfully this sits firmly in the ‘work’ box. There is real emotion in Adam’s singing, Damo’s guitar work, and the rhythm section of Ant Wellman on bass and Luke Calvert on drums.

Big River are a band who I’d certainly like to hear a full album’s worth of material from, and let’s hope that is sooner rather than later.