When Rivers Meet - Aces Are High.

WHEN RIVERS MEET
ACES ARE HIGH

(One Road Records)

By Paul Davies

The Bonds return with their third long player and, like a tank crunching over hard rocky ground, Aaron Bond strums a raw riff straight out of the Jimmy Page textbook as Grace Bond wails about the travails of being Infected with a heady passion. It sets the tone for what is to come, as the opening dark and doomy salvo of heavy chordal and vocal motifs, with reverbed drums, on Seen It All Before ups the ante in its calculated rawness. It’s a confident approach that reaches its possible apogee - there are more than a few tracks in hot competition- on Play My Game finding Grace Bond’s powerful blues-rock vocals coming to the fore.

Again, this stripped-back raw approach benefits the nucleus of these song’s component parts. Without a doubt, less is an almighty more for this husband-and-wife duo. However, not everything is a headlong adrenalised blues rush as the acoustic strum and vocal harmonies on Golden details as it reduces this forceful blues march to a slower pace. Then the title track detonates more sonic explosions on a revved-up blues engine of a song. “My aces are high, tables are turning” chants Grace being as much a metaphor for this duo's rapid rise to the top of the pack in the UK blues scene.

As Grace takes a breather, Aaron gives his vocal cords an airing on Trail To Avalon’s verse. Not satisfied with playing violin and mandolin, Grace takes over to holler like a blues banshee as Aaron gets all joyously Jimmy Page once more. The autobiographical Perfect Stranger is this duo's love letter to themselves. With tumbling percussion imitating heart palpitations, Grace narrates their musical and personal marriage.

The beautiful Americana-style ballad By Your Side rubs up exquisitely with final crunching belter 5 Minutes Until Midnight. In doing so, they reveal the contrasting attraction of this alluring record. This is forty mesmeric minutes of heavenly blues rock with all ten tracks competing, yet bonding, with each other. It’s a no brainier why When Rivers Meet have been voted UK Blues Band Of The Year three years running. When Rivers Meet play a winning hand On Aces Are High yet again.

Photo: Rob Blackham