Ian Prowse
Album: Companeros
Label: Learpholl
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.amsterdam-music.com

If the sign of a great singer songwriter is having enough respect for your audience to keep releasing genuinely listenable and interesting music then Ian Prowse is heading towards godlike status. 25 years after first forming the criminally underrated Pele, Prowse is back with his second solo album and it's chock full of the type of pop-rock golden nuggets that we've come to expect - albeit most of them have been lovingly pilfered from some equally underrated artists that Prowse has seen and heard along the way.

It's impossible to pigeon hole Prowse into a singular style - in fact you imagine he could tune his hand to most styles given time - this is just great music. His ability to weave stories and history into his arrangements is a notable pleasure as well. The pop-folk take on Alun Parry's of trade union activist Des Warren sits comfortably alongside the Thin Lizzy-esque stomp of Derry Gaol with neither resorting to the need for melancholy or downbeat atmospherics to get the seriousness of their message across.

Prowse's magpie like standing as a modern day Cecil Sharp is admirable and his pride in bringing little known classics to a wider audience than their originators were ever lucky enough to be able to is palpable. These aren't mere cover versions though. 'Johnnie & Marie' for instance is a skiffle edged take on the soul-pop not-quite-hit by Up & Running in the late 80's. A run through Damien Dempsey's Celtic classic, Saint Patrick's Brave Brigade is given an Americana twist that makes a plaintive but powerful song just that bit more special.

With that said though, the opening track is an almost carbon copy of Jim Jiminee's 'Town & Country Blues'. There's no need for it to be anything else though as the 1-2 hayride of the original would be lost any other way.

Ian Prowse has nothing left to prove but its absolute testament to a special musician and remarkable performer that he still keeps recording and releasing albums that are as good for the soul as Companeros. A Merseyside treasure that keeps on growing in value.

Rob Fearnley