The Claire Hamill Band-’A House Amongst The Trees -Progressive Voyages Review
The album cover from The Claire Hamill Band
I didn't know a lot about Claire Hamill other than she had been part of Wishbone Ash in the 1980's appearing on the1980 album Just Testing where she appeared on backing vocal in addition she also wrote the track Living Proof, She appeared on the Number the brave album from 1981 joining the subsequent tour.
I've since discovered that she appears on The Steve howe album from 1979 where she sang on the track Look Over Your Shoulder. , Further research tells me that Claire got involved with the Channel 4 television programme The Art Of Landscape for which she recorded a vocal interpretation of Pachabels “Canon” which received considerable screen time in the early 1990’s.Claire wrote the song You Take My Breath away which was covered by Eva Cassidy and appears on the Eva Cassidy album American Tune and was also the lead off track on The Best Of Eva Cassidy a cd that sold a lot of copies after Eva's early death.
However enough about past glories what's this album like, In short its more prog adjacent than fully progressive, It consists of 12 tracks and lasts for around 54 minutes in total, the music is a mixturet of upbeat tracks alongside a few slower more introspective numbers,
For this album Claire's band are absolutely fine and dandy, they can sure play up a storm. As they do on several tracks her like My Snakeskin lover and Intoxicated, Which features Mark Abrahams of Wishbone Ash whilst David Knopfler (Dire Straits) appears on Wings Of Freedom where he adds Piano, Tthis is a brirsk country rock style track. Whilst Obsession is another standout track with a driving rhythmn and lots of great guitar touches fills and lines peppered throughout, a great short guitar solo grabs the attention as does the slide guitar from Sean Elliot, this man certainly can play and us literally burning up his fretboard here,
Its a remarkably assured and confident song that shows why this band deserve a listen, blistering stuff, As is Your Name Is In The Wind which has a strong slide guitar line woven throughout its grooves, Claire is in excellent voice on the whole album,
This album is one who’s stature grows the more you listenn to it.
Don't Go Home Without Me is another excellent track with great lyrics, Much as I like the quieter songs the album really ignites on the more rocky tracks.
All We Have Is Now also impresses as it has a touch of The Beatles to these ears and it is all the better for that, Again this song really warrants your attention. The lyrics are great and convey really depth of emotion, the guitar from Sean Is great too as he raises the roof with his fantastic playing here.
In short this is a fine set of songs with some truly great performances from the band especially Sean who burns very brightly here indeed.
I thoroughly enjoyed this album. have no hesitation in recommending it to all lovers of great music songs and performances.
Info here:https://clairehamill.bandcamp.com
Author John Wenlock-Smith Wednesday 10th June 2026.