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Peter Gee - Heart Of David

Artist:	Peter Gee
Title:	Heart Of David
Label:	SI Music Simply 36
Length(s):	62 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1993
Month of review:	11/1993

Line up

Peter Gee, Tracy Hitchings, Clive Nolan, Paul Wilson, Fudge Smith, Ian Salmon, Rik Carter, Richard West, Karl Groom, Daniel Bristow, Matthew Weeks, Iain Sullivan, Daniel Weeks, Steve Weeks, Trudy Morgan, Masie Thompson, Michelle Williams, Bisi Fajana, Nike Sofolawe, John Jackson, Michael Miller, Carlyle Felix, Sian Roberts, Stev Rispin, Tony Grisham, Nigel Harris, Uwe d'Röse, Tina Riley, Patrick Barrett, Nick Barrett.

Tracks

1)	Angel Song	2.55 (instrumental)
2)	Walking By Night	4.30
3)	You Bring The Rain	6.20
4)	Unspoken Words	4.34
5)	Forever	3.39
6)	Crying On The Inside	6.28 (instrumental)
7)	Heart Of David	2.11
8)	The Enemy Within	2.49 (instrumental)
9)	On Broken Wings	4.44
10)	Water's Edge	6.18
11)	Beyond Ourselves	3.13
12)	Kingdom Come	2.26
13)	Voices In The Dark	5.09
14)	The Everlasting Arms	6.22

Music and lyrics by Peter Gee Produced by Clive Nolan, Karl Groom and Peter Gee

Summary

The bass player of Pendragon on his first solo disc. All current and former members of Pendragon are present on this cd. Quite a lot of people were involved in the conception of this CD, though quite a lot of them were only involved in just one song. Still, a lot of familiar names can be found, including that of Paul Wilson, brother of the former singer of Landmarq, who is vocalist on most of the tracks.

The music

The music is diverse and can not be called progressive all the way. People thinking it might sound like Pendragon are far off: only in the titletrack (7) and (13) can we hear some distant echoes (in the former because of the singing of Patrick Barrett, the brother of.., and in the latter, because of the guitar-solo by Nick himself (the solo reminds me of Please from the 9:15 album). In addition to 13, the only songs that approach progressive rock in the narrow sense are the instrumental and most won't even call this progressive, because the songs sound like Strangers on a Train (still, stubborn as I am, I think they do). This has a lot to do with the 'vocalist' on these songs: La Hitchings. The instrumentals are quite good, especially Crying on the Inside, which isn't voiced by Hitchings herself but Tina Riley. It sounds a like she sings it though. Continuing with another class of songs: the soft songs. Factually most of the songs are very soft, making the music good for the late nite hours, with the kids (or the parents) gone to bed. (4, a bit like Dire Straits on their slow songs), (5, very, very slow. Do the lines 'When I fall in love. It will be forever' mean anything to you. I think it was Jim Reeves, who did that one), (7, acoustic and a bit boring), (10, a slow version _Where the streets have no name_, with a late keyboardsolo making it somewhat proggish), (11, a jazzy feel, but slow still. It's kind of moody and frail), (12, again an acoustic one, but definitely less boring) and lastly (15, another soft-popsong, that works itself to some sort of subdued climax (what the hell is that?)). The only songs left are (2, a Collins song, with horns), (3, a gospel- song with choir, that lacks a real climax), (6, starting of like Bruce Hornsby, but later becoming real symfo, with a nostalgic atmosphere) and lastly (9, being a pop-song, about mid-tempo but a good one, to be sure). IMO 6, 9 and 13 are the best songs.

Lyrically this album was quite a surpise to me, because it is filled with references to the bible (Matthew 11:28 etc.) and the Living God is even thanked by Peter himself. Not my cup of tea really, but the lyrics do not disturb me, because most songs can be understood in any of several ways. This does not go for Walking by Night though in which several (all?) wrongnesses of our present world are explicited in a way that, though without becoming explicit, sounds a bit moralistic to me.

Conclusion

On the whole I would say a very respectable album, but it's more late- nite music than the usual prog. Still by means of instrumentation and the very melodic songs, the symphonic influences are not really far off. Comparisions, you ask? Wait, wait...on the tip of my tongue..ah, yes Kerry Livgren. You know, with the lyrics and all, I think Gee's album can be best described as a collection of mostly soft and melodic songs, that Livgren sometimes makes. Unfortunately I do not have a lot of Livgren, but I can remember a very soft song by AD or Livgren himself that had a bit of the atmosphere that Gee's music has.