Back in 1994, well-respected Lindisfarne guitarist and songwriter Rod took a break from band
duties to record a solo album; the resulting One Track Mind was released only in limited-edition
cassette format. It was a superb set, eleven songs in all, that included some timeless blues and
folk standards that had inspired him alongside solo versions of some of his own well-loved
classics like Road To Kingdom Come, Train In G Major and (of course!) Meet Me On The Corner. Just
under half of the album was Rod solo, demonstrating in particular just how masterly a guitarist
(especially slide) he is as well as an easygoing vocalist skilled in expressive understatement:
these tracks included a really impressive take on Ain't No More Cane (On The Brazos), while the
stripped-bare versions of the aforementioned classics work brilliantly. On the rest of the cuts,
which included powerful takes on Evil Hearted Woman and Bourgeois Blues, Rod was more than ably
backed by what was then Lindisfarne's rhythm section - Steve Cunningham (bass) and Ray Laidlaw
(drums).
In 2001, the album was reissued on CD, and the opportunity was taken to add three extra (instrumental) tracks; these pitted Rod's guitar wizardry against his own programmed percussion, with (on occasion) judicious additional bass, harmonica and keyboard. These elegantly bluesy adventures formed a useful adjunct to the original cassette album, and made the CD an essential purchase - but glory be, this 2008 expanded reissue of the earlier CD is even more desirable, for it contains also the original home recording of No Turning Back as well as two more tracks (bringing the total up to 17), these last recorded only this year by that most sympathetic of engineers, Ron Angus.
These are solo performances by Rod of songs resurrected from a very early stage of his career: Blues For A Dying Season was originally recorded around 1969 for the unreleased Downtown Faction album, whereas A Dream Within A Dream (written in 1968/69) was performed just the once by Lindisfarne for a 1971 radio broadcast. This wonderfully fresh-sounding and supremely coherent (and excellent-value) 70-minute collection just has to be one of the year's key reissues. (David Kidman September 2008)
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