Fankhauser records outstanding albums in his home country Switzerland without being an outstanding singer himself. Within parameters, he works wonders with shadings and dynamics, and, as shown by seven selections on his 11th album, he has a gift for writing richly sonorous and sophisticated songs about secure, broken or quixotic relationships. Fankhauser also plays superb guitar on „Lonely In This Town.“ He’s fortunate to have Dennis Walker, once an associate of Robert Cray, contributing choice material and producing. Walker makes sure ex-Cray bassist Richard Cousins and the other supporting musicians compact soul and blues in the service of the song, no matter the tempo or mood.

Frank Hadley

**** of *****

This is the eleventh album release from the man hailed as “Switzerland’s answer to Van Morrison”. Although I would not go so far as to directly compare him with the great man I can definitely see where the comparison stems from. An accomplished vocalist who can move effortlessly from slow blues on ‘One Of Them’ and ‘The Sundown’, to soul on ‘You Caught Me Off Guard’ and ‘Are You Out Of Your Head’, piano bar style ballad (this is a compliment) on ‘I Didn’t See (The Best Of You)’ and even a touch of Latino rhythm on a fine cover of Richard Torrance’s ‘Rio De Janeiro Blue’.

The song writing is of a very high standard. Philipp is the major contributor with producer Dennis Walker (Robert Cray, B.B. King, John Campbell) also making his mark. In fact the slow blues ‘I’m Finished Here’ which was co-written by Dennis and the excellent keyboard player Hendrix Ackle is to my mind an outstanding piece of work as is ‘I Got A Love’, written by one time mentor, the late Johnny “Clyde” Copeland. As you can probably imagine such an established artist is going to surround himself with quality musicians. This is apparent throughout the album with some excellent understated performances. A melodic joy.

Thomas Rankin