Special Company

Music virtuoso Josh Kelley's fifth album is a lavish and passionate magnum opus which chronicles the love story between him and his wife, Katherine Heigl.

His style is as diverse as his musical skills which span across the electric guitar, 12 string guitar, Dobro, bass, synth, xylophone, rhodes piano, drums and percussion. A selection of which he artfully blends into each track. Remarkably talented, he also writes his own songs.

This eclectic musical journey is both a parody of the rollercoaster ups and downs of love, and his search for different perspectives on spirituality and life.

His vocal range stirs soulfully in 'Two Cups of Coffee' to a feverish falsetto in 'My Kind'. Each track is surprisingly different from the previous one. This makes it very difficult to put Josh in any kind of box that he can call his own. Instead, he builds multiple boxes taking from the likes of Al Green, Maroon 5, Damien Rice and Jack Johnson. His impatience to cultivate a sound that is strictly his bears the risk of his fans growing loyal only to the songs and not the artist. And although he has been in and out of the airwaves for five years, many of his fans may still be asking: who is Josh Kelley?

'Hey Katie', a song about his wife, is wonky, playful and sexy. 'Lift Me Up' and 'Still Gonna Try' are stirring and authentic glimpses of the heart made poignant with soaring notes from the cello and Dobro respectively. You may recognise 'Unfair' from his wife's movie, '27 Dresses'. Certainly infatuated with his lady love, the lyrics drip with angst-driven romance.

From a young age, Josh has been driven to push his limits and strive for greater success. He also happened to learn a lot about music from golf, applying lessons in timing, respect and being a gentleman to 'Special Company'. A lesson well learnt as the attention paid to musical detail has produced an album that is stimulating and enticingly easy to listen to.