Following the split of British legends Thunder earlier this year, guitarist Luke Morley has teamed up with blues legend Peter Shoulder for this new project. I was impressed what I caught of the band at the High Voltage festival, and on the eve of a UK tour we get their eponymous debut album.

The opening track 'Watch The River Flow' is a benchmark, a solid hard rock number with blues overtones, the blues solo working well, the vocals working perfectly. 'Easy Street' is another blues rocker that is catchy yet honest and strong.

'Saviour' is a much softer number with acoustic elements while 'Step Up To The Place' does just that in heavy fashion. 'Holy Roller', like 'Amazon', has country rock leanings, and 'You Know My Name' is a guitar riff led rocker.

Overall it is classic rock with mixes of modern rock, blues, acoustic and country, and it is a Union that works very well. This is a move away from Thunder (although Luke has taken some of their sound with him, it would be hard not to) but it's a combination that works very well.

You'll need an open mind for some of the country tracks (remember it's country rock, not Nashville country), but they still work pretty well. I'd imagine the Thunder fans will lap this up, if only for the rock and blues moments, but I enjoyed the album almost all of the way through.

****

Review by Joe Geesin

www.joegeesin.com