''This Is the Life'' is a solo album from Scottish

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

musician Ricky Ross, a member of

Deacon Blue Deacon Blue are a Scottish pop rock band formed in Glasgow during 1985. The line-up of the band consists of vocalists Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh, keyboard player James Prime and drummer Dougie Vipond. The band released their debut album ...

. Ross produced the album with Kenny MacDonald, who had produced for Deacon Blue in the past. The album has more touches of folk and country music and the general mood of the album is more placid than most of the Deacon Blue catalog. Deacon Blue colleague

James Prime James Prime (born 3 November 1960) is a Scottish musician best known as the keyboard player for rock band Deacon Blue. Prime also lectures at the University of the West of Scotland. Known as a Hammond organ, Hammond/piano player, his talents h ...

plays piano on "The Way to Work", and Ross' wife and Deacon Blue colleague

Lorraine McIntosh Lorraine McIntosh (born 13 May 1964) is a Scottish singer, vocalist with Scottish band Deacon Blue, and actress. Career McIntosh is a vocalist with Deacon Blue, whose second studio album, '' When the World Knows Your Name'' (1989), topped the ...

contributes vocals to one song (as she did on each of Ross' three prior solo albums), "Nothing Cures That". This is the first Ricky Ross solo album to receive a US release.

Track listing

All songs written by Ricky Ross, except where noted. #"Northern Soul" (Ross,

Charlie Dore Charlie Dore (born 1956) is an English singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and actress. Although best known as a singer-songwriter, Dore has a multi-faceted career that includes acting in film, TV and radio, comedy-improvisatio ...

) – 6:34 #"London Comes Alive" (Ross,

Mick Slaven Michael Slaven (born 4 December 1961) is a session guitarist and record producer from Glasgow, Scotland. A former gardener at the University of Glasgow, Slaven became the guitarist for Bourgie Bourgie in the 1980s, and was briefly a member of D ...

) – 3:33 #"Rodeo Boy" (Ross, Davie Scott) – 4:32 #"Angel and Mercedes" (Ross, Slaven) – 5:05 #"I Sing About You" (Ross, Slaven) – 4:28 #"Nothing Cures That" – 4:26 #"This Is the Life" – 6:01 #"Threatening Rain" – 3:05 #"Starring Love" – 3:56 #"Hippy Girl" – 3:48 #"My Girl Going to Town" (Ross, Scott) – 5:13 #"Looking for My Own Lone Ranger" (Ross, Dore) – 2:29 #"The Way to Work" – 4:54

Bonus download track

#"Driving George" – 3:58 (No longer available as URL no longer active)

Personnel

* Ricky Ross -

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

*Davie Scott - piano,

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The glo ...

, percussion,

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

- guitar,

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

*Jim Gash -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

*Scott Fraser - bass guitar *Simon Clarke -

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

on "Nothing Cures That" *Tim Sanders -

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

on "Nothing Cures That" *

Roddy Lorimer Roddy Lorimer (born 19 May 1953) is a Scottish musician who plays trumpet and flugelhorn. He has performed with a wide array of artists, including Blur, Gene, the Rolling Stones, Draco Rosa, the Who, the Style Council, Eric Clapton, Suede, ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

on "Nothing Cures That" *

Annie Whitehead Lena Annie Whitehead (born 16 July 1955 in Oldham, Lancashire, England) is an English jazz trombone player. Career Whitehead learned the trombone in high school and participated in rock and jazz bands. When she was 16, she left school to become ...

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

on "Nothing Cures That" *Jacqui Penfold -

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

on "Looking for My Own Lone Ranger" *Jo Sutherland -

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

on "Looking for My Own Lone Ranger" *Alastair Savage - violin on "Looking for My Own Lone Ranger" *Amanda Shearman -

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

on "Looking for My Own Lone Ranger" *

- piano on "The Way to Work" *

- backing vocals on "Nothing Cures That" {{Authority control 1997 albums Ricky Ross (musician) albums Chrysalis Records albums