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MILES TO GO ALBUM - CRITIC REVIEWS - JEN HASELBY

In X-Press Magazine:

This album has a great compositional elegance making it particularly beautiful. The material is a reflection of the man's travels that extend from the mighty Fitzroy river to the oxide stained soils of the Pilbarra and rain sodden roads of Ireland where he takes sabbaticals playing pub sessions.

It's an album that has many reviewers scratching their heads overseas. While being unanimous in their praise few realise this is a ground-breaking album from a musician whose spent years honing his skills acrosss a spectrum of popular music styles and whose form is now emerging. While Hyams has focused on playing celtic music on his guitar for the last 10 years, on Miles To Go expands he enriches it with trumpet, cello, tuba, french horn, electric bass, percussion and a plethora of celtic instruments; harp, whistles, flutes, bodhran, uillean pipes and bagpipes as well as including his fine finger picking on cittern, mandolin, accoustic guitar and electric slide guitar.

You may think all these instruments together will be way too ambitious but don't. Hyams inclusion of each instrument only highlights the mood of the compositions as he takes you on a tour of stunning locations he's had the luck to visit as well as some not so pleasant, all the while capturing the intensity perfectly.

This is an excellent first album on David Hyams' new label Dark Horse Records with the bonus of being an original 'Australian celtic' release. No wonder they're pleasantly surprised overseas!



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