I can’t say that that I am given to sentiment yet I am, for reasons unknown, forever blessed to hear the songs of those who are. Colin Macduff is most certainly a sentimental man and most of the twelve songs that make up his album “The Past and The Sky” reflect this.
As the man with the plan once posited, it’s a long way from nowhere to somewhere so why do so many people make the journey? Maybe it is because it is the journey itself that makes it all worthwhile. Better to travel than to arrive, as the saying goes, and you could do worse than reflect on your own efforts at progress as you listen to this album. The music, only occasionally decorated with a sprinkle of the fiddle, is clearly the work of an acoustic singer songwriter with a guitar in his hands. The lyrics, however, seem initially trivial yet it is their almost casual normality that gives them both a resonance and relevance that transcends their occasional contrivances.
I will admit that there are a few misses on this album yet, when Colin Macduff puts on his rose tinted glasses, he proves himself perfectly capable of hitting you right in the heart.