Something of a stalwart side man if the sleeve notes are anything to go by, Mick Simpson airs his guitar on his album “Hard Road” even if it’s a conventional path that he follows with these 14 British blues rock songs.
Whether playing to the melancholy (“Somewhere Down The Line”), doing the rocking with the hood of the convertible down thing (“Only Road”) or doing an extremely passable Snowy White impersonation (“A Father’s Son”), Mick Simpson shows both confidence and a mastery of the old fret board. Perhaps to further improve his credibility amongst aficionados, he even references his affinity for the blues in “Badlands” and then sets about delivering that proof in “Sometimes I Get So Lonely”.
Looked at as a whole, it is the songs that let the side down on this album as they never stray lyrically or musically far from what you would expect a middle of the road blues rocker but when Mick Simpson hits his guitar powered groove – and he does so with not inconsiderable style – it is easy to forgive that and just pick up your air guitar and play along.