Aynsley Lister: Home Review
Aynsley Lister has been at it for a long time. He’s been playing the guitar for 28 years and performing live for 23. Throughout, he’s released many albums, bridging from his early years to the present day and cataloging his growth as an artist. His repertoire culminates in the release of July’s Home, a worthy blues album and his own personal best.
Home begins with its title track, which fittingly sets the stage for the tone of the album, an expansive, driven exploration of Lister’s greatest strengths. As the track fades, it gives rise to several other large-scale (in both sound and length) examples of the bluesman’s ability. Lister most often comes out of the gate with guitar-heavy instrumentation and pointedly punchy vocals, although he peppers the record with enough tracks of contrasting style to keep things interesting.
Home is a lengthy album, weighing in at a little under an hour long. There seems to be little filler, though. For the most part, Lister manages to capture both his potential and his reputation and combine them with enough evidence of the power of his live performance style to make the album well worth the listen. At times, his direction seems somewhat ambiguous, without a clear overarching theme to the album, and not all the tracks are particularly memorable. The ones that are, though, are certainly worth coming back to as Lister’s passion as frontman of a down-to-Earth blues band definitely ground him in an established tradition of familiar blues style.
His mastery of the style places Lister squarely in position to be a truly big name in blues rock. He’s reached a high point in his career, and has a lot to be proud of in Home. The album shows deep musical and emotional maturity and provides a bevy of blues rock for fans and newcomers alike to sink their teeth into. The proportion of Home is pretty good, and Lister can be thanked for not leaving listeners with a trite, underdeveloped experience. Instead, he leaves them with something that truly satisfies.
The Review: 8/10
Can’t Miss Tracks
– Home
– Insatiable
– Free
– Hyde 2612
The Big Hit
– Possession
Review by Tyler Quiring
Someone in the USA needs to help Aynsley get promoted and achieve greater notoriety on the bigger stages of North America. We’ve all seen Joe Bonamassa, John Mayer, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Jonny Lang and Derek Trucks who are great talents as anyone would agree. What I don’t understand is why Aynsley isn’t mentioned in the same breath when asked who are the go to guys to listen to these days. Listen the the album Supakev & Pilchards and you’ll get some idea of what Aynsley is capable of. He deserves geater standing among his peers. The vote this month for best release of July says it all when he hits up the top spot being more popular than Buddy Guy. Need I say more??
Totally agree with Marc: I really struggle to understand why Aynsley Lister isn’t a superstar (except that perhaps blues rock isn’t as popular a genre as it was in the ’70s). The guy is absolutely in the same league as John Mayer et al as a musician (if not better), plus he writes great songs and sings well. He also throws in nifty cover versions of other folk’s work. I think Home is an excellent and quite eclectic album, though as ever the man is always at his very best when he plays the blues. The title track is superb. I never get tired of listening to his music these days. If you haven’t already checked him out and you’re a blues fan, then take any opportunity you have to see him live.
I really like this album, especially songs like “broke” and “you make it real”. First I heard about Aynsley Lister, through song “with me tonight”
I came across Aynsley Lister on a compilation CD, with the likes of Joe Bonamassa etc. Home was on the cd, I thought it stood out as an exceptional track. Aynsley happened to be playing at Doncaster a few weeks later, I booked tickets straight away, that was last night. I was blown away, what a talent! I’ve seen a lot of bands through the years, Aynsley is up there with the best of them.