Short Reviews [Tracy Hitchings - 2025 - "New Horizons"]

I first came across Tracy back in 1992 when I was sent a copy of Quasar’s ‘The Loreli’ to review, and for a while afterwards she seemed to be everywhere as she was Clive Nolan’s female singer of choice for multiple projects while she was an in-demand session singer both for live work and studio. The first time I saw her sing was when she and Clive supported Landmarq at The Standard when Damian Wilson was lead singer and they had just released ‘Solitary Witness’. She joined that band in time for 1998’s ‘Science of Coincidence’ and toured with them before announcing she was fighting cancer. She fought that terrible disease and won the battle and appeared on all three of their live albums as well as their last studio release, ‘Entertaining Angels’, in 2012. She decided to move to Australia to be with Peter Yaxley, who she had met on a cruise, and after a while started her very successful podcast ,‘Tracy’s Prog World’, as well as going back into the recording studio. When she passed away in December 2022 there was an outpouring of grief in the prog world as she was so well known and loved. As our time zones were fairly well aligned, I had become a frequent guest on her podcast, sharing both memories and laughs and I was deeply upset at her death. However, Peter soon contacted me to let me know he had plans for her music so she would be remembered, and this 4-track EP is the first to be made available. I believe these are the first studio recordings featuring Tracy to have been released since Clive’s 2013 ‘Alchemy’, and her first appearance of any type since Landmarq’s 2015 live release ‘RoadSkill’, which is quite a surprise given how prevalent she was in the Nineties. The four songs were all written by Tracy and recorded in Australia with Simon Gardener (guitars), Daniel Spirovski (bass, keyboards, orchestration), Darran Muller (drums) and Kathryn McKee (cello). She has lost none of her power and range, as is witnessed by the long-held high notes in opener “All Over The World”, and all of these made me smile the first time I played time, and each time ever since. I strongly believe that in many ways Tracy never achieved the recognition which was rightly hers, and these four songs demonstrate yet again that here was a singer who could seemingly do anything from breathy emotional ballads to pop rock, all with a decent dose of prog to go with it. This will be eagerly received by many who miss her and have hoped there was material to come out of the vaults, and Peter assures me there will be some albums coming over the next few years as well. Tracy may be gone but she will never be forgotten, even if she was Cornish (and even now I can hear her screeching with laughter at that comment).