Classy genre-hopping acoustic roots collection from Leicester-based musician. If you’re one of those people who equates authenticity with rough edges, dodgy production and grittiness, who thinks genre-hopping is best left to frogs and thinks that anything that sounds even slightly pleasant is MOR and therefore to be ignored, then read no more. If, on the other hand, you’re a little more open-minded and want good music whatever it’s labelled then read on and discover a little gem of an album. 

Michigan-born but long-time Leicester-resident Chris Conway is one of those infuriating musicians that you’d have to kill, just to give the others a chance, if he wasn’t so good and such a nice guy. He plays numerous instruments, all of them superbly, and creates jazz, fusion, filk (look it up), New Age and roots music, to name but a few. “My Mind’s Island” is his last roots/song collection, and a mighty fine thing it is too, exuding warmth. 

If it has a theme then that theme is life and how to deal with it. It’s shot through with wisdom, insight and understanding, as on “I Don’t Know”, a cross-generational “what’s it all about” song that says all that needs to be said on the subject in just under six minutes, the grace and acceptance that the narrator of “Just Around the Corner” displays in the face of an ending relationship, or the addressing of low self-esteem on “Proud Of You”. There’s also a lightness of touch and sense of fun on the Twenties-styled “Nobody Loves Me”, a paean to the solitary life, some twenty-first century Celtic dancery on “The Garden”, and a timeless folk tune in “Air of Morar”. “My Mind’s Island” is an album for a glass of wine and a lover, an album of timeless truths and honesty, and an album you ought to have. -  Jeremy Searle
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Two new shiny circles from Leicester's own David Crosby, both featuring our man on a plethora of instruments - guitars, keyboards, theremin, kalimba, zither, vegetables etc - and his trusty lieutenants the Talking Fish in support.
My Mind's Island is, if you like, the regular album, replete with beautiful, elusive melodies and arrangements that shimmer effortlessly from folk to West Coast to cool jazz without seeming to swap genres, so comfortable is Conway in all settings.

There are no duffers here but especially pleasing are the rippling "Just Around The Corner" with it's superb chordings and lovely multi-tracked CC vocals ; "The Garden" with it's funky folk ambience and lyrics of withdrawel from society's madness ; the brief but immaculate "Between" and the haunting perceptive "Spring In Winterland"
Both albums are recommended. - bp
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Chris has a very easy to listen-to style and voice..and when you read who he has supported and likes you can see where some influences have come from.
It also has some tracks that stick in your head that you cant get out..usually a good sign to me!!
Style...acoustic mainly..real across the board mix..celtic..rock..ballads...
Lets say..its been playing on repeat for a long time now....easy to have in the background and you find yourself just into the tracks! - 9/10
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On My Mind's Island we experience to the full Chris's skill in producing well-crafted and thoughtful songs with predominantly acoustic-based settings. Having said that, there's a fair helping of Celtic folk and ambient grooves in these songs too, and the relaxed yet committed, often deeply touching and generally life-affirming nature of the lyrics makes for an attractive 55 minutes of listening. 
David Kidman
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