Review of Holy Love from the Scottish Daily Express (1 Oct 2004)
*** Jimmy G's come more than the length of Byres Road from the early 1980s when he was the heartbeat of Glasgow bands Friends Again and the hugely under-achieving Love And Money.
His fourth solo album is a stripped to the bone gospel/country-tinged affair. Grant is in all his thrawn glory, passionate, nut-brown vocals and superb guitar playing. Co-produced by Capercaillie's Donald Shaw, this features backing vocals by Monica Queen and Karen Matheson and the dobro-meister Jerry Douglas. May of the songs have a prayer-like quality. Hear 'em and weep.
James Grant - Holy Love Review from Word
"The Glasgow troubador's Holy Love has real depth and a certain sombre grandeur" by Paul Du Noyer
Fun lovers looking to load their iPods for those approaching Christmas parties need not detain themselves here. The Scottish songwriter James Grant is not a specialist in mirth, beats or lyrical easy wins. I find he's best enjoyed alone, late in the day and perhaps with a tumbler of something to aid contemplation.
The former vocalist with Friends Again and Love And Money is four records into a solo career now, of which this one sounds the starkest. Acoustic guitars, the odd mandolin or banjo, lend a subdued country air to Grant's yearning, soulful voice. Essentially there is nothing to get in the way of his songs. They sometimes carry a mournful cargo: on "The Streets You Walk Every Day" there are "bouquets at the school gate: last night's joy ride". But the prevalent tone is that of a wry mind charting an impassioned heart.
The best three or four numbers, like the title track and "Before She Shot The Arrow", are darkly beautiful. They suggest he is receiving visits from the same Muse who once paid regular attention to Van Morrison. Most apparent in "Holy Love" is the exploration of romantic longing through spiritual images: Mary Magdalene, suffering martyrs, lustful looks across the nave. It's uplifting, if not upbeat. Grant has obviously tramped the high walled exercise yard of Catholic guilt, but he has not lost site of the sky.
James Grant - Holy Love Review from The List
**** Wow. Going from relatively unlamented 80s jazz-funkers Love and Money to this in the space of a decade is one of the greatest critical reinventions you'll never hear about. For James Grant, up until now a potential "where-are-they-now?" question of the Scottish music scene, has made an album of delicate swell-hearted alt. Country ballads which surely deserves a seat at the table of James Yorkston and his ilk. It's his fourth solo effort, mind, but the meandering socialism of "Give The Poppy To The People" and the sheer understated splendour of "The Streets You Walk Everyday" mean that Grant has surely earned the recognition for his present rather than his past, at long last. (David Pollock)
James Grant - Holy Love Review from NetRhythms
Back to his own material after the last album's interpretations of poetry by such names as Blake, WH Auden, and Rimbaud, the former Love and Money singer is so steeped in Celtic soul he makes Van Morrison sound like Gareth Gates. Others have cited Scott Walker, but a more appropriate reference point would be Jackie Leven, not only are their voices close but both see the spiritual within mortal love and the determination to survive life's vicissitudes.
It's a theme announced by the seven minute opener title track where, starting off sounding a lot like Leonard Cohen, he sings "this world is lit by the epiphany of a kiss" against a simple arrangement of guitar, piano and double bass, and picked up again on Randy Newmanesque piano and banjo (?) ballad Give The Poppy To The People.
There's a wry balance that acknowledges love and life have their downs as well as ups, the optimistic sunrise shimmer of The Streets You Walk Everyday (set to just acoustic guitar and the wonderful Monica Queen's divine harmonies) contrasted with Before She Shot The Arrow where, to the accompaniment of Jerry Douglas's dobro, the singer prays to a saviour 'who was never there' and realises love can come to an end. Dandelion Clock too serves as a potent image of transience, as well putting a clever spin on the line 'blow me away'.
There's playfulness here on the cautionary lovers warning of Monica with its tumbling guitar figures but while the starkly banjo backed Mary Magdalene offers the hope of repentance it's the darker numbers that have the strongest pull; I'll Comb The Tangle From Your Hair as the singer tells of being hopelessly infatuated with the old woman in widow weeds he sees in church, the bitter resignation of The Soft Option where going along with "all life's rites and rules", sedated by Prozac and Playstations, is easier for disaffected youth than railing against the dimming of the world's spiritual light. In artistic terms at least, Catholic guilt clearly still has a few things in its favour.
James Grant - Holy Love Review from Mojo (December 2004)
*** Ex Love & Money anchor puts electric guitar on ice
"When you stand around singing 'Teach, O Teach Us How To Die' at primary school, it's bound to warp you..." Grant has said. And while fans will know James doesn't really 'do' Mambo No 5- like frivolity, on this Joni's "Blue" and "Led Zeppelin III" - influenced acoustic work, his dark Catholicism weighs as heavy as sodden felt. It's there on the benedictory title track, and again on Mary Magdelane, wherein a lone banjo pecks out a circular melody that's spooky as a Victorian musical box. With dobro maestro Jerry Douglas augmenting Grant's own guitar prowess, and Karen Matheson and Monica Queen on back-up vocals, Holy Love doesn't lack tonal colour, finess or sensuality. What is missing perhaps - even if Before She Shot The Arrow comes close - is that killer song in which Grant's melodies/lyrical aspirations gel to form something extraordinary.
James McNair