Aynsley Lister - Home (2013)

Aynsley Lister has been at it for a long time. He’s been playing the guitar for 28 years and performing live for 23. Throughout, he’s released many albums, bridging from his early years to the present day and cataloging his growth as an artist. His repertoire culminates in the release of July’s Home, a worthy blues album and his own personal best.

Home begins with its title track, which fittingly sets the stage for the tone of the album, an expansive, driven exploration of Lister’s greatest strengths. As the track fades, it gives rise to several other large-scale (in both sound and length) examples of the bluesman’s ability. Lister most often comes out of the gate with guitar-heavy instrumentation and pointedly punchy vocals, although he peppers the record with enough tracks of contrasting style to keep things interesting.

Home is a lengthy album, weighing in at a little under an hour long. There seems to be little filler, though. For the most part, Lister manages to capture both his potential and his reputation and combine them with enough evidence of the power of his live performance style to make the album well worth the listen. At times, his direction seems somewhat ambiguous, without a clear overarching theme to the album, and not all the tracks are particularly memorable. The ones that are, though, are certainly worth coming back to as Lister’s passion as frontman of a down-to-Earth blues band definitely ground him in an established tradition of familiar blues style.

His mastery of the style places Lister squarely in position to be a truly big name in blues rock. He’s reached a high point in his career, and has a lot to be proud of in Home. The album shows deep musical and emotional maturity and provides a bevy of blues rock for fans and newcomers alike to sink their teeth into. The proportion of Home is pretty good, and Lister can be thanked for not leaving listeners with a trite, underdeveloped experience. Instead, he leaves them with something that truly satisfies.