The Hellfire Club - Wyoming Town Hall

The Hellfire Club are a fine old-fashioned country music combo, although they hail not from Nashville but from Ayrshire. Some may argue that it's not a valid pursuit for a Scottish band to sound like good ol' American country boys but The Hellfire Club make you forget all about the whys and wherefores with great songs and abundant passion for their favoured style of music. The strength of the album is the way that the fiddle playing and the lyrics keep Scotland in mind. This is best achieved on Mines Rescue Men, a tribute to the rescue teams who worked in the coalmines of Ayrshire. By preserving their roots in their borrowed musical style The Hellfire Club have succeeded in producing an enjoyable record, which is undeniably country but also unmistakably Scottish. [Dave Reid]