Last summer, when this scribe met Jim McCarty in Toronto, he was glowing. The legend of British blues was demoing a new album for THE YARDBIRDS and had just recorded a new solo collection, a follow-up to the brilliant "Sitting On The Top Of Time" from 2009. It turned out the band’s offering couldn’t be completed, yet Jim’s own “Walking In The Wild Land” will see the light of day on March 16th through Angel Air Records.
The veteran calls it his best solo album to date – stating, “I’m very happy with the songs, and particularly the sound” – and praises the work of Terry Brown, who mixed it and did some additional production, and also George Koller, who really concentrated on getting McCarty’s voice sounding good in the studio. Doing all that, again, in the town where the artist’s father was born surely contributed to the record’s spirit. More so, being there allowed Jim to invite Alex Lifeson from RUSH – who covered THE YARDBIRDS’ “Shapes Of Things” and “Heart Full Of Soul” on their “Feedback” back in 2004 – to add guitar to “Soft In A Hard Place” which makes the result enticing to a lot of prog fans as well.
Walking In The Wild Land
As for the full tracklist, it goes like this (read the review):
1. Walking In The Wild Land
2. Changing Times
3. Mountain Song
4. Right On The Road
5. Charmed
6. Soft In A Hard Place
7. Dancing Leaves
8. Stop Living Life In The Past
9. In The Clear
10. Connected
11. Come Around The Corner
12. So Many Questions
