Market Square 2015
Miracle Of Healing
Sitting on top of a personal world, a Highlander sings the blues to the wonder of life.
Blues is literally in this artist’s blood – a hemophiliac, he was infected with a whole lotta diseases when infusion from America appeared to be unclean – so one would expect the Scotsman’s music to be depressive. Yet the songs on “Miracle Of Healing” burst into existence once Andy Gunn won the battle on a cancer field: that’s where the album’s triumphant sounds come from. Of course, there’s a lot of rumination on mortality – most obvious in the solemn acceptance of “Freedom Reality” and in the slider-licked hymnal flow of “Beyond The Open Door” – but there’s also hope in “Planting The Seeds”: a glance into the future.
The full-blown merriment is manifested in the rollicking “Black Heart” – rolling on a boogie – and, kicking off its doubt in favor of wah-wah-wonder, in the funky opener “Are We Thru?” where Gunn bends notes for his soft voice to rock and harmonica to pour pure joy in. Still, it’s the lazy pace of “Brighter Days” that’s the sign of a man at peace with himself, while the rumble and gospel rise take “Harmony Of One” one step closer to spiritual experience, although the organ and piano make the title track just as moving. With “Trouble Women” tapping into a perennial blues subject, there’s no better symptom of convalescence: it’s a victory Andy Gunn has shared with his listeners. A wonder, indeed.
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