Vince Bell - One Man’s Music (Independent) I’d lost touch with Vince Bell (after picking up his debut CD ‘Phoenix, Texas Plates’ back in 1994) until this new release popped though my mail-box recently. Like many people, I suppose, I’d hunted him down after Nanci Griffith recorded his ‘The Sun, Moon and Stars’ song for her 1991 record ‘Late Night Grand Hotel.’ She later cut ‘Woman of the Phoenix’ for her Grammy winner ‘Other Voices, Other Rooms’. Griffith noted at the time; ‘From all of us who were beating the paths around Texas in the Seventies, I always felt Vince was the best of us.’ In the 1970s he played the same circuit(s) as itinerant troubadour trailblazers Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Lucinda Williams and Nanci Griffiths. Bell’s striking gift for a strong narrative was cruelly cut down when he was severely injured by a drunken driver late on the night of December 21, 1982. Vince’s long, courageous road to recovery would take him ten years. Vince Bell is an acquired taste. Though undoubtedly a fine writer; his voice sounds not dissimilar to a weathered, creaking barn door. Still, that shouldn’t dissuade listeners from checking him out. I see strong similarities with the much lauded Sam Baker, and old hands Bob Dylan and John Prine. Townes Van Zandt, always a hard man to impress, once declared that ‘Vince is a poet’. The new record is a sparse affair, featuring Vince Bell’s acoustic guitar and voice, backed by Ned Albright on Steinway Grand Piano, who adds colour and depth to the songs. The title song encapsulates Vince Bell, the man and his music, neatly; ‘One man’s music plays like one man’s heart, there is no giving in right from the start.’ 6/10 www.vincebell.com John Brindle Next