Bill Lake's Slow Bake - Lost and Found (CD)

Wellington's Bill Lake has a long and impressive CV, the bands he has been in include Mammal, The Windy City Strugglers, The Pelicans and work with the late Rick Bryant as a duo. And more.

He's steeped in folk, country, blues and R'n'B. He also had a long and important songwriting association with the late Arthur Baysting.

Now in his 70s, he brings a kind of worn down sadness to the 10 songs on this new album and although the spectre of the inevitable appears in these acoustic songs (with Steven Hemmens on bass, percussion player Alan Norman).

He is a gifted songwriter as is immediately evident on the opener – cowritten with Baysting -- Lost in My Own Hometown where the first verse has Lake considering the feeling of distance from people and the loss of the familiar on his walk.

These are songs with emotional weight, a subtle sense of gravitas delivered in a fracturing voice which brings a further dimension of weariness as the finish line is getting closer with every waking day.

Bill Lake's understated approach, thoughtful lyrics and the sense of edging the personal into the universal – with the casualness of a back-porch session – is well worth hearing.

- Graham Reid (Elswhere.co.nz)

1. Lost in My Own Home town 
2. Turn Around and Take a Step
3. Dust 
4. Evening Star 
5. Trying to Make it Over 
6. Tear Down All the Stars 
7. See What Love Can Do 
8. Hear My Prayer 
9. Milky Way 
10. A Glass of Wine