VALLEY GARDENS

Wally´s second album is considerable better than their debut. Their odd mix of symphonic rock and country music is much more even here and although it is hardly great, it showed they were developing their very own sound and maturing. Unfortunalty, they disbanded soon after this album was out and their truly potential would remain as one of rock´s many unanswered questions

There are nice pasages all over the album, even if nothing really spetacular. Their songwriting was still in the early stages, I believe. Nevertheless, they were able to come up with a fairly good prog rock CD that has some Yes influences here and there, plus very good harmony singing. I liked the guitar and violin parts as well. The only real downside on the instrumental field are some pointless noodlings on the epic The Reason Why.

In the end I found Valley Gardens to be an interesting album, with a sound that promised more than they delivered by the time the band broke up. A real shame, I guess, since they at least had something different from most prog bands at the period. If you´re into both prog and country, this is an album to look for. But don´t expect too much . 3 stars.