THE FULL CAST ALBUM - A Review by Terry Kew of SenTinel

Red Dust Overture/ Your Finest Hour / Like My Fathers Father/ Let Me Hold You/ Sometimes Feels Like Heaven / Loving Arms/ Like My Fathers Father/I Will Go Back/ It'll End In Tears (unplugged version)/ Steel Town (unplugged version)/Dream/Hurry Home/Close

To be honest, I have always been wary of cast albums because on the whole they tend to be only a souvenir of your visit to the show rather than stand as an album in it's own right. Here you couldn't be more wrong. Although the subject matter might seem alien to those of us living in the south, you can not detract from the passion of the music.

It's a great pity that I never got to see the show, the songs are really brilliant   The album also includes narration which leads into some of the songs. From the strains of the "Red Dust Overture" you just feel that you are in for a musical treat. "Your Finest Hour" is a rip roaring song that's just a taster of things to come. "Like My Fathers Father" is a chant set to a steel tool percussion accompaniment. "Let Me Hold You" is one of the best songs that Steve Thompson has ever written, much better than "Hurry Home" in my opinion and for me, it's this ballad that steals the show for me. This song is sung as a duet by Stephen Walsh and Trasi Hartley. 

"Sometimes Feels Like Heaven" has an acoustic guitar for accompaniment with the cast singing the chorus. "Loving Arms" is another duet sung mainly to a piano accompaniment with strings in support. "I Will Go Back" is another favourite of mine with some great guitar work. I like to think that I discovered this song as Steve nearly lost this on a tape he sent to me. It was very rough then. It's bloody brilliant now. 

"It'll End In Tears" is sung to an acoustic guitar with the cast singing the chorus together. It's quite a moving song and I would suspect that this song gets a big round of applause because of the sheer emotion that the song evokes. The title song "Steel Town" could certainly be the show's closer because it does give the cast an opportunity to sing their hearts out. Steve's biggest hit, "Hurry Home" gets another lease of life and it's only fitting that Mr Thompson's roots culminates in his biggest hit. This album deserves to be bought or at the very least heard.