Featured Artist: Rick Washbrook

CD Title: Moonlit Solace

Year: 2009

Record Label: Washbrook Music

Style: Various Jazz Styles

Musicians: Rick Washbrook (guitar/vocals)

Review:

There comes a time in everyone’s life when reflection becomes a natural order of things in getting from point “a” to “b.”  For some of us, it’s looking at old photo albums, listening to old records that may recall more enriching times of our life, or remembering someone who touched our emotions in some particular way.  For a musician, the natural way of reflection is through his instrument.

As the lonely, cold winter cast it’s frosty landscape across the window, Rick Washbrook sat in his Oakville studio apartment ‘round midnight, picked up his guitar, and let his inner most feelings ooze from the very depths of his soul.  He wandered back to his childhood and progressed along life’s emotional journey revealing all the bumps along the way, until spring’s renewal brought forth new promise.

With enough recorded, late night material to fill three CDs, Moonlit Solace is one of these thought-provoking, soul cleansing CDs down Washbrook’s own personal memory lane.  Bluesy, folksy and jazzy, he provides a window into the “gypsy” of his soul with expressive guitar fingering and vocals.  

Within the 12 diverse tracks, five of them are originals; the light and airy “McGoldrick,” the faithful “You’re Not Alone,” the pensive title track “Moonlit Solace,” the comic “Whiskey Drinkin’ Woman,” and the physical “My Blue Thumb,” all which speak to the talent of this accomplished guitarist.

Romantic tracks recall varied emotions with “My Funny Valentine,” “Since I Fell for You,” “It Could Happen to You” and “Moon River.”  And, why not?  Nothing captures romantic emotion like selections from the classic American Songbook. 

Winding up the disk, we hear Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” Mick Jagger & Keith Richard’s “The Spider & The Fly,” plus Washbrook’s seasonal passage from spring, Gershwin’s “Summertime.”

You can always hear overtones and nuances of guitarist Lenny Breau  in Rick Washbrook, but  in Moonlit Solace you really can hear  more of his inner voice.

Record Label Website: http://Washbrookmusic.com

Reviewed by: Suzi Price

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