Liane Carroll - Seaside - The Scotsman

The warm-voiced and open-hearted singer and pianist Liane Carroll pays tribute to her home port of Hastings, nailing her colours affectionately and often passionately to the mast, accompanied by a sterling assortment of musicians, including Grammy-nominated producer and multi-instrumentalist James McMillan.

She opens with the wistful waltz time of Joe Stilgoe's title track, brass cranking the nostalgia to Hovis levels, and ranges through an engaging song choice, not all of which have much to do with the sea - the heady rush of Almost Like Being in Love, for instance, with her scatting over Steve Pearce's racing bass, the sultry blues-stalking of Nobody's Fault But Mine, or the powerful, gospel-inflected Mercy Now.

Bring Me Sunshine has echoes, perhaps of pierhead vaudeville, but not as Morecambe and Wise knew it, instead delivered easefully over Mark Edwards' spare piano deliberations, while she ends with the salty old hymn, For those in Peril on the Sea, straight from the heart and complemented beautifully by McMillan's dignified flugelhorn solo.