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ALBUM REVIEW - 'ALL THINGS REAL' BY HUGO VOGEL
FROM ALTCOUNTRY.NL JUNE '06 (TRANSLATED FROM DUTCH)

Bonnie Prince Charlie belongs, together with Robert The Bruce and
Walter Wallace, to the greatest freedom fighters in Scotlands
past. It is however not this Charlie but Bonnie 'Prince' Billy who is a
source of inspiration for the Edinburgh-based Steve Adey.
On All Things Real He covers Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's I See A Darkness.
The rest of the cd has the same dark atmosphere also found in Will Oldham’s work. The difference is that Adey’s beautiful songs are based on the piano.

Moreover, producer Calum Malcolm has brought the album to a sonic level that is higher than lo-fi.
At first the songs were recorded with a full orchestra and a choir.
But that was too much of a good thing. The album was re-recorded
in a small setting, where there was also a part for a Naomi van Noordennen, a Dutch woman now living in Scotland, on violin and as a background singer.

All Things Real also offers a brilliant slow version of Dylan’s Shelter From The Storm. Adey knows his way around classics, but offers up at the same time something very much his own. Something beautiful, something serene, something that after a while you can’t take out of your CD player anymore.
Something real, All Things Real. 4/5

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