Following on from their critically acclaimed ‘PM’ album, a record that really underlined Pete Gow’s position of one of the UK finest songwriters, Colours Simple sonically delivers a fuller band approach and one that is both fuelled and driven by the sublime fretwork of guitarist Jim Maving and grounded by rhythm section Tim Emery and Andy Bastow, with Mike Wesson once again in the piano/organ hot seat. Recorded at Chris Clarke’s Reservoir Studios in north London, Colours Simple opens with the anthemic Poets Corner, that sets the tone for much of the record. Gow sings about love, loss, isolation and life in the shadows. Like all the albums before, lyrically Gow’s songs paint word picture vignettes, moments in time where the players battle on the frontline of emotion. And are forever questioning their place in the world. The liner notes – a dry essay on the death of liner notes – are provided by Gow’s friend and colleague – CBS News Senior Foreign Correspondent Mark Phillips.

Review
Pete Gow likes to tell stories, and in his other life as a war correspondent for CBS News Case Hardin’s chief songwriter is no stranger to desperate situations. Like Richmond Fontaine’s novel-writing lyricist Willy Vlautin, Gow doesn’t so much write songs as set stories to music… Intense and furrow-browed, Colours Simple creates a world where characters tumble into each other for better or (mostly) worse, but kick up a pair of cowboy heels as they ride Hell’s hay cart – **** –Andy Fyfe, Q, October 2015

Quite simply, with no pun intended, Colours Simple by Case Hardin is a record to treasure and a collection of songs knee deep in marvelled magnificence. Long live the complete album in all its glory and that a British band from the thriving independent sector can engage in such artistry – Three Chords And The Truth UK, 18th August 2015; It’s hard to think of an album that deserves the full set of stars more than Colours Simple, which is, quite simply, epic in its greatness…It might be classed as Americana, but it’s rock ‘n’ roll, music made with heart and soul, with power and passion; music that gut-punches your emotions and hits you where it hurts…Magnificent – ***** –Jeremy Searle, R2, December 2015

Pete Gow and Case Hardin are fast carving out a place for themselves in the list of finest UK songwriters. Colours Simple is ambitious, headstrong and no holds-barred. It lacks bulls**t and takes no quarter. It arrives in your speakers like a debut record, crackling with the energy of players in their teens or early twenties (a situation that for Gow et al has, alas, all but disappeared in the rearview mirror), but benefits from a mature perspective that weighs equal amounts of reflective honesty and resigned habit and judges both almost to perfection. Put simply, Colours.. is an exponential leap forward, and that s from a point way up the scale already… Come the revolution, all music will be made this way; with heart and head, honesty and vigor, as if it means something. Colours Simple is immediate and lasting, a great big bar-room brawl of an album where the pugilists roll up their sleeves and shake your hand before taking you down. Turn it on, crank it up, down your shot and wade in. –Eye Level With The Stylus, July 2015