Symons is a great guitar player. Much of the album is acoustic but there's a good sprinkling of electric guitar sounds. He is an accomplished slide player who can go from a Ry Cooderish 'Tomato Soup' to a pre-war picked slide like McTell, on 'Golden Holden'. The latter is a hymn to what he calls the 'bluesman's car'. 'Missing You' is a beautiful song, with a contemporary country lilt to it, and lets Symons' voice float over the pretty guitar melody. There's other hints of country rock, too, 'Duckbread Blues' rocks with more great electric slide and fun lyrics. '90 Mile Beach' has layered acoustics and electric slide creating a lush texture, with harmonised chorus and another great song. 'Ansafone' s just that - his voice mail message - cool but tantalisingly short. The last cut, 'The Last Run', is a pretty guitar instrumental. This is an excellent album - Symons has a fine voice, writes good songs and has achieved a distinctive sound on this self played, self produced album.

Symons has done everything from the whimsical sculptures for the cover art to the neat country/blues/rock songwriting, geetar playing, slide overdubs, vocals, dedications and enigmatic liner notes. (A tip: leave the disc running after the last track has finished.) This is the kind of album we welcome from the likes of Guy Clark “rooted firmly in the singer’s own world, no bullshit, nicely crafted songs with meaning and wry humour”, cool instrumentals, all his own work. The most honest album I’ve heard in a long time and anyone who can title a modest slide guitar instrumental Tomato Soup is alright by me.