The dictionary definition of Americana is "Materials relating to American history, folklore, or geography or considered to be typical of American culture" so how you boil this down to a genre of music is hard to fathom. Although the CD states "More blue eyed Soul and AOR from the Land of the Free".

Compiled by Zafar Chowdhry and Mark Taylor Americana 2: Rock Your Soul contains tracks that are mainly from the '70 and '80s. While most of them are lost gems, you can bet that, if you're of a certain age, the majority of the tracks will sound familiar. For example: RCR's 'Give It To You' sounds like a Bee Gee's song; and Steve Eaton's 'Without You' reminded me of Al Jarreau's theme tune to Moonlighting.

Yes it's cheesy, but it's an enjoyable album, with 16 tracks and a running time of approximately 1 hr, 08 min. If you enjoyed the first volume, then you'll also get a big kick out of this follow up release.

How on earth they managed to condense this album down to 16 tracks is anyone's guess, but they're certainly widely different, while at the same time transporting you back to a time when the world was a simpler place.

On a side note, I couldn't help but smile at 'Hot Ice' by TR's Hot Ice, which is rather tongue in cheek. The female vocals rather cheekily, breathlessly whisper: "Hot ice", but it sounds more like "Hot ass" - or "arse", as we Brits say.

Track listing:

01 - 'There's A New Group In Town' - Breakaway
02 - 'I Know All About It' - E.J. Stamp
03 - 'Make Me Believe' - Archie James Cavanaugh
04 - 'Night Time Stars' - Joseph Nicoletti
05 - 'Everywhere' - Spats (Your Lovin' Is)
06 - 'Hollywood' - The Ray Camacho Band
07 - 'Hot Ice' - TR's Hot Ice
08 - 'Vaya Mulata' - Luc Cousineau
09 - 'A Million Stars' - Macky Feary Band
10 - 'Give It To You' - RCR
11 - 'I'm Ambivalent About You Baby (Yes, Yes, Yes… No, No, No)' - Freudian Funk Band
12 - 'Just One Touch' - Dan Mastroianni
13 - 'You Win, I Lose' - Hal Bradbury
14 - 'Giving Love Instead Of Gold' - Lucy Stone
15 - 'Without You' - Steve Eaton
16 - 'Here Is Where Your Love Belongs' - Jaye P. Morgan

8

Nick Smithson