Submitted by Iain Patience
This is a twelve-track album stuffed with tasteful, acoustic and slide guitar picking from an Englishman now resident in rural France - hence the title.
Cowley, originally from the Birmingham area, includes strong covers of many standard traditional acoustic classics including a couple from the ever-popular, melodic Mississippi John Hurt - 'Monday Morning Blues' and 'Pay Day'; another couple from Mississippi Fred McDowell - 'Write Me A Few Of Your Lines' and 'You Gotta Move' together with some Muddy Waters, Son House, Bukka White and Rev. Gary Davis. All are played with punch and talent supported by his gritty, quality vocal delivery. These tracks are interspersed with four self-penned titles in the tradition that sit well seamlessly within the overall mix, If there's a flaw here, for me, it's Cowley's take on Gary Davis's oft-overcooked 'Candyman', a tricky track to reinvent or bring with a fresh flourish. But this is a minor blemish in an otherwise cracking album.
'Rural' is a release that will appeal to most lovers of traditional acoustic blues and should ensure that Cowley himself reaches a wider audience with his ability fully to the fore. Rural blues it may be but this is no sluggish or stagnant backwater offering. In reality this is a very good, balanced and varied album of good old Country Blues with fretwork and slidework of quality aplenty. A rewarding release well worth catching.