Mad Ears Productions [Release date : 21.10.26]

Mockingbird Hill’s ‘Melting Pot’ is an engaging and at times beguiling album, full of good songs, bluesy grooves and intricate musical detail.

I don’t know the reasons why Andy Littlewood originally called his innovative recording project Mockingbird Hill, but this cross-over album suggests he might have used the 50’s hit song as an inspiration.

For while the lyrics of that song allude to finding a sense of peace, harmony and the pleasure of a simple life, this album frequently appears to aim for the same, on 13 self penned songs of musically related genres with a spiritual bent.

The title track is the highlight of an album on which he brings his musical vitality and producer’s vision to bear on American roots music. He encompasses rock, blues, country and jazz together with an array of well chosen collaborators.

The fact that it’s the penultimate track makes its feel as if he’s distilled the essence of what’s gone before, and poured it all into something very unique.

Opening with mandolin, big beats and percussion, it also represents a mission statement about his own creativity: “A melting pot for all ideas, I’ve stored them up throughout the years.”

He creates a lovely wall of sound with additional violin to create a chiming effect, topped by double tracked vocals and further lyrical insights: “I borrow from this, I borrow from that, I cross the music genre path, from every record that I’ve played, the spirit flows right through my veins.”

Littlewood is a celebrated multi instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and producer who has the experience and vision to piece together a musical jigsaw and make it sound organic.

He opens with a coruscating wah-wah infused Cream style rocker called ‘Slow Down’.

Co-written by Giovanni Bruno, who also features on fiery guitar, it’s a song with a Zen like message which could also apply to the subtle pacing of the album as whole.

Bruno also co-penned ‘Dead End Street’ – a mid-tempo rocker of substance – on which he adds his rich toned guitar, and he is versatility personified with some cool jazzy licks on ‘Prohibition’, a song with interesting subject matter.

The very original narrative illuminates the rise of the jazz in the 20’s Prohibition-era clubs.

It’s a sonorous, dirgy, muted trumpet-led piece with piano and subtle brush stokes, which serves to underscore the oppressive lyrical feel perfectly: “forced into submission, ignore this prohibition.”

The album works so well because Andy’s warm vocals draws us in to a wide variety of material which ensures an essential flow.

He is thus able to shift from the self explanatory ‘Chicago Blues’ to the atmospheric ‘Maybe Today’.

The former is a piano-led piece with ebullient MEP horn stabs, in contrast to despondent lyrics.

A melange of trombone, harp and a vibrant guitar solo leads to a bristling sax and bv’s on a Steely Dan style outro.

By contrast, ‘Maybe Today’ is an atmospheric blues ballad with a dreamy intro, tic-toc snare and an impressive vocal with more guitar.

‘Southern Seduction’ is different again, being a clever fusion of sepia tinged lyrics and musical feel, on a greasy blues full of nifty dobro, echo laden vocal, organ and a neat hook.

In many ways this is an understated album that let’s the melodies breathe and the lyrics resonate, on arrangements which often place the emphasis on space.

He cleverly couples the evocative instrumental ‘Arizona Sky’ – all synth pulses, slide and pedal steel – with the down-home feel and modern beats of ‘Delta Sky’.

Both tracks derive their impact from being in the slipstream of the rocking ‘Six Strings & A Melody’, a song reminiscent of Dave Edmunds Rockpile era.

The lilting ‘Far Away’ also benefits from a big band horn arrangement, bolstered by piano and organ, as it swings into a lovely fractured finish.

Then there’s the Bo Diddley beat and train-time style of ‘One Way Traffic’, a song which moves from an acoustic slide-led intro and infectious handclaps into a piercing electric solo, before returning to the groove.

He adds significant banjo and slide at the 2.40 minute mark, to give it extra impetus.

The album is book-ended by the ethereal ‘Wild Blue Yonder’, with a lattice of jangling guitars, tic-toc snare, acoustic guitar and synth.

It’s a luscious sounding track on which the song’s search for harmony provides an uplifting aspirational finish to a well crafted album. ****

Review by Pete Feenstra

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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TAKIDA In Your Bed (Napalm Records)
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HOKKA Vampire (Nuclear Blast Records)
HOLLOW PACT Witchking (Sumerian Records)
RETURN TO ZERO Dark Matter (Eve Music)
MMMR MUSIC Fire’s Still Burning (Duckfat Records)

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09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Singer Songwriter)

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