CD Review: Justin Hayward – Spirits ... Live – Live at the Buckhead Theatre, Atlanta

CD Review: Justin Hayward – Spirits ... Live – Live at the Buckhead Theatre, Atlanta

Eagle Rock Entertainment

All Access Rating: A-

Justin Hayward - Spirits  

Justin Hayward's choice of guitars for his 2013 tour in support of his beguiling solo album Spirits of the Western Sky made all the sense in the world.

For the first time ever, the legendary Moody Blues' singer/guitarist decided to bring his "song writing" guitars on the road, thinking that perhaps they might help recreate onstage the intimacy and warmth of his music room at home.

Apparently, Hayward was on to something. Spirits ... Live – Live at the Buckhead Theatre, Atlanta is a pristine concert recording of Hayward and friends performing an uplifting and gorgeously rendered mix of a few Moody Blues classics and newer Hayward originals with sincerity and romantic idealism. Ever the tenderhearted optimist, his acoustic strumming giving off a golden glow as his songs swell with emotion, Hayward still has an expansive voice capable of carrying his lovelorn pleas to heaven. Though slightly weathered, making his guileless delivery here more approachable than ever, it emits purity and light, Hayward rejecting despair to remain open to enchantment and deep connections. This troubadour still believes in love, and so do his fans, who he seems to pull ever closer in such a lovely setting, which can be seen on the DVD and Blu-ray versions of this live release.

Drifting ever so gently away from the haunting, mist-shrouded progressive-rock readings of the Moody Blues' staples "Nights in White Satin" and "Tuesday Afternoon," which opens the brilliantly rendered set with soul-searching introspection, Hayward and acoustic guitarist Mike Dawes and keyboardists/backing vocalists Julie Ragins and Alan Hewitt mostly engage in affecting, wistful and often sunny folk-pop throughout Spirits ... Love, with "In Your Blue Eyes" and "One Day, Someday" sounding especially dreamy on this August night in 2013.

And though they run somewhat wilder through a jaunty, joyous version of "Your Wildest Dreams," it's the twinkling magic of "Land of Make Believe," the winsome natures of "It's Up to You/Lovely to See You" and "I Know You're Out There Somewhere," and the spare, natural beauty of "The Eastern Sun" that benefit from simple, quiet instrumentation, the well-crafted melodies therein allowed to shine on their own without gaudy embellishment. So does the country-tinged "It's Cold Outside of Your Heart," an unexpected gem nostalgic for old Nashville but still English to the core.

Maybe Hayward is the musical equivalent of "Chicken Soup for the Soul," but Hayward's also always had a gift for writing timeless music that speaks of love and loss and triumph over darkness. In that respect, it's a refreshing departure from the noise and violence of a world obsessed with flash and scandal at the expense of innocence and hope. http://www.eagle-rock.com/
– Peter Lindblad

CD Review: Justin Hayward – Spirits of the Western Sky

CD Review: Justin Hayward – Spirits of the Western Sky

Eagle Rock Entertainment

All Access Review: B

Justin Hayward - Spirits of the Western Sky 2013

Justin Hayward hasn’t completely gone country. Only part of Spirits of the Western Sky, Hayward’s first solo album since 1996’s The View from the Hill, was recorded in Nashville, and it doesn’t take an Earl Scruggs or an Emmylou Harris to figure out which songs he did in Music City.

Accented with plucked banjo, some light fiddle and mandolin, the gorgeously rendered, heartfelt acoustic sketches “It’s Cold Outside of Your Heart,” “What You Resist Persists” and “Broken Dream” roll around in down-home bluegrass and glow incandescently, like fireflies trapped in a Mason jar. And the breezy pop touch of “Captivated by You,” seemingly spun from pure ‘70s soft-rock gold, could easily have taken inspiration from some of country’s best songwriters – that is if the choruses weren’t so lushly orchestrated. 

Concerned as always with matters of the heart and spirituality, the Moody Blues’ lead vocalist and guitarist also spent time recording in Genoa, Italy, and there’s a sophisticated pop sensibility at work here that takes advantage of Academy Award-winning composer Anne Dudley’s much-ballyhooed skills. Always willing to flesh out skeletal arrangements with orchestral flourishes, as the Moody Blues have often done, Hayward strums his acoustic guitar so lightly that it’s almost whispering as he puts Dudley’s talents to work on such dreamy, string-laden fare as “One Day, Someday,” “The Eastern Sun” and “The Western Sky.” None of them are quite as intoxicating as the melodic cocktails served by Burt Bacharach or as mysterious and bruised as the soul of Nick Drake, but Hayward is getting close.

What sinks Spirits of the Western Sky is how drenched in heavy-handed sentimentality – both musically and lyrically – the record is, as the always-earnest Hayward just can’t help but go overboard on “In Your Blue Eyes” and whitewash “On the Road to Love” in utter pop blandness. A romantic at heart, Hayward is always going to go for the grand heartfelt gesture, and sometimes it’s truly gorgeous and sometimes it’s the wan, sickly “Lazy Afternoon” that comes through the door. And then there’s the matter of the two remixed electronic dance versions of the Moody Blues favorite “Out There Somewhere” that close Spirits of the Western Sky. Surprisingly contemporary sounding – unlike that dated, cringe-worthy album cover – and hypnotic, they still feel as completely out of place as … well, Justin Hayward at a rave.

-       –   Peter Lindblad