Twilight Hotel

Review of Highway Prayer - Peter J Brown

‘Highway Prayer’ by Twilight Hotel is a piece of country-folk-blues the like of which you don’t get to hear too often nowadays! Twilight Hotel are a duo from Winnipeg, Canada and their beautifully grounded take on the genre is as fresh as it is intoxicating and as polished as it is honest. Twilight Hotel deliver their dark edged story-telling blues with a near-unique blend of down-home charm, bar-room grit and mature sophistication.

‘Highway Prayer’ gets to parts that other albums fail to reach; this is a no pretensions album that just gets down to business and deals all the right cards with slick professionalism and earthy reality. Twilight Hotel comprises Brandy Zdan and Dave Quanbury, a couple that show sublime creative sensitivity to this understated genre and make no attempt to join in with the ‘big solos’ blues generation. Twilight Hotel tell it simply but give it undivided attention as they pour their hearts out with believable passion and stylish aplomb. From bass-slappin’ stylish rockabilly to slippin’ and slidin’ delta, Twilight Hotel run the full gamut of blues nuances with slick familiarity. Their no-fuss, band in a subway, approach relies heavily on stunningly worked vocal harmony set against a relatively sparse but empathetic instrumental backdrop – Twilight Hotel feel the pain and make sure you feel it too! Whether givin’ it out with gravel throated balls or honey-drenched harmony Twilight Hotel are quite obviously, plainly and simply, two like-minded souls singing from the same hymn-sheet; both feel it, both live it and both certainly deliver it!!.

Twilight Hotel’s contagious blues style is beautifully bolstered here by a handful of guest musicians that ensure their inclusion is an augmentation rather than take-over but these songs would work equally well totally stripped back and laid bare. Twilight Hotel deliver blues with heart and soul and although ‘Highway Prayer’ is simplistic in form it’s performed with great attention to detail and absolute belief. ‘Highway Prayer’ by Twilight Hotel is captivating and rewarding – a superb trip into blues country that’s as contemporary as it is old-school, accessible to the point of being near-tangible and lets you feel the blues without needing to feel blue – a beautifully understated yet perfectly balanced album rammed full of earthy musical poetry, worldly sentiment and honest grit – superb!!

Review by Peter J Brown, UK (www.toxicpete.co.uk)