Note:  This reviewer describes the make-shift band she saw in London, not the actual band (Stuart, Marcus, John Mock, John Gardner, Mark Prentice, and Andrea Zonn).                    

This is what happens when Nashville meets Fife. Stuart Adamson, erstwhile Big Country frontman and inventor of the much maligned "bagpipe guitar" sound, took himself to Nashville five years ago in search of inspiration. After collaborating with a number of songwriters he struck up a partnership with Marcus Hummon - the man behind a number of Dixie Chicks hits - before recruiting John Mock and ex-Big Country drummer Mark Brzezickie to form a new band. And so, to paraphrase Donny and Marie, The Raphaels are a little bit country, a little bit jock ’n’ roll, though not often on the same song.  

The country-orientated tracks range from the upbeat honky-tonk of Simple Man to the radio-friendly Life Is A Church, while the Celtic numbers are, in the main, stuck in the 1980s jockrock tradition.