Ben Walker & Chris Knowles are both professional multi-instrumentalists, and Ben is also a talented and original singer-songwriter. They both have eclectic musical backgrounds, including involvement with traditional Celtic music, modern folk, rock and jazz. They live in the UK, and have worked together as a duo for a number of years, and have released several previous albums. This album is a collection of 8 songs written by Ben, plus 3 songs by other contemporary songwriters. The album title is taken from a line in the 5th song 'Laying my Rifle Down', and references to war or conflict arise again a few times in some of the songs, but this is by no means a theme for the entire album, and the subject matter of the songs is quite varied. The duo play their own arrangements of the songs, accompanied by various instruments. Ben plays acoustic guitar on most of them, with additional keyboards and flute on some, and Chris accompanies using mainly Celtic harp and electric mandolin. The exception to this is the third track 'Keeping it White', an ironic and poignant portrayal of how racist views can be insidiously passed down the generational line. Ben performs solo accompanying himself on keyboards. Most of Ben's songs, and the 3 cover songs, have quite deep, meaningful and thought-provoking lyrics. Yet the overall musical timbre is largely gentle, flowing, intricate and especially atmospheric. 'Sonar' is a song which was inspired by a poem written by Bill Mitton. Bill has written some amazing poems and Ben saw the potential of the song in this particular poem. 'Briana' was co-written by Ben's wife Therese, describing a little girl she used to look after, and how she used to dispel her fears. 'Laying My Rifle Down' is a story song, set in the First World War, about a young soldier refusing to follow orders to shoot a fellow traumatised soldier in his own company for desertion, and thereby risking his own execution for disobeying orders. Most of Ben's songs on this album have not been released on record before, but track 9 'Fisherman' , a song in 5/4 time alluding to the cycles of time and maybe reincarnation, was the title track of an earlier album by the duo. Here it is given a new arrangement with harp and overdubbed vocal harmonies. Two of the cover songs, 'By Now' by Richard Shindell, and 'Raven in the Storm' by John Gorka, have dark connotations to the lyrics, and Chris uses a hand-held magnetic resonating device called an Ebow on the electric mandolin and mandola to create a subtle but chilling atmosphere behind them. He also plays slide mandolin, on the songs 'Sonar' and 'By Now', using a small brass finger slide. The last track of the album is a lighter, happy, wistful song about a Dragonly. Ben & Chris both have websites for those interested in finding out more about them, and their other recordings. They presently have 2 other albums also available on CD Baby and iTunes.