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Each of the 12 tracks combines both vocal richness and heartfelt lyrics, which are sung with a voice which could radiate warmth in a bathtub of ice. At times the lyrics and sound flow very easily, yet still touch many a nerve and the deep feelings of the listener.
The whole spectrum of everyday life experiences and observations are covered, from the “Breaking News (Still My Girl)’ where every father of a daughter, will instantly relate to how the feel to protect your little girl, even as she reaches maturity, never leaves you, to a modern day observation with “Listen’ highlights the overuse of lip service and how talk is cheap and the realisation of the plethora of people who listen without ever hearing anything of substance. The track “No Good Times Came’ questions the looking at past experiences/life through rose-tinted glasses, but then positively taking on what the future has in store. Finally Mike’s humour is highlighted with the track “Oh Doctor’ and the acknowledgement that we have all been trapped in those situations and trying to plan our escape without success.
This is Mike Silver at his brilliant best and an album which will have very few, if any peers in 2009.
Mike Silver pays a rare visit to Leeds on 7th Feb when he plays at St George's Church, Great George Street, Leeds, with a 7-30 start, see the man live and buy the CD, you will not be disappointed.
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Living Tradition Review January 2008
When you bring together two seasoned professional singers each with their own solo standing, to write, record and perform like this there is a risk that the result might disappoint. There is no fear of that in this case. Johnny and Mike toured together in 2005 and 2006 and the audiences loved it. They will love this, too, and I think one reason might be that it is really a trio album. Mick Dolan has done
a superb job at his studio in Trelash. North Cornwall and I reckon his name deserves to be in bigger print! Postcards From Cornwall is one of my favourites on this CD. Another of many highlights is the down-home rootsy blues of Main Man's Ear in which the two voices come together so well you wonder why they left it so long to get around to this. The country reworking of Karine Polwart’s The Sun's Coming Over The Hill is glorious as is the mayhem of Robbie Robertson's Up on Cripple Creek. Oh ... and don't be in too much of a hurry to take the CD out of the player ... there’s an absolute gem that will reward your patience. There are three songs on this CD co-written by Mike and Johnny. One of which is called We Had it All.
No need for the past tense, boys.
Phil Thomas
Although neither Coppin nor Silver have achieved much more than cult status, it's certainly no indication of their song-writing abilities. Like so many who make their living largely within the folk and roots circuit, it's chiefly their main reliance on acoustic guitar and song writing, rather than interpreting Traditional music, that has been the pair's forte. Coppin, as part of folk rockers Decameron in the early 70s and latterly via solo material and collaborations with the poet and writer Laurie Lee, and Silver, originally signed to Elton John's Rocket Records in the early 70s and since working with folk, pop and mainstream performers in addition to recording a series of solo albums, have both steadfastly ploughed their own musical furrows.
Breaking the Silence, their first studio collaboration, works particularly well with Silver's song writing displaying a sharpness of delivery and deftness of touch reminiscent of Richard Thompson, and a rootsy blues at times bringing to mind the work of Ralph Mc Tell. Coppin's voice, the higher of the two in timbre, is more suited to some of the gentler material such as his vision of a rural idyll, 'Rydal', where his voice hints at the soaring strength of John Denver.
Silver's songs of broken and damaged relationships, 'Wrong Side of Midnight' and 'Not a Matter of Pride', told from the woman's point of view, are knowing yet sensitive explorations of the human spirit. The duo's self-penned material stands out amidst the occasional cover versions (an exception being Coppin's elegant reading of Karine Polwart's ‘The Sun's Coming Over The Hill’).
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