Maestoso – Maestoso (1980) Maestoso were in reality Stuart (Woolly) Wolstenholme – keyboard player and sometime writer for Barclay James Harvest.  Always of a more classical bent, Stuart grew more and more disillusioned with the more commercial sound the band evolved into during the late Seventies, and feeling squeezed out of composing he left the band in 1978 and reworked some songs he had presented to the band but which were rejected, plus some new songs – the result was this album under the name Maestoso.  He toured for a while and was working on a second album which he abandoned.  He took up farming and turned his back on music but John Lees persuaded him to help him on his late solo career.  Re-invigorated, he completed the abandoned album and recorded a few more albums.  He sadly committed suicide in 2010.  This album was probably the best he recorded solo and sounds fresher than some of the music his old band made in the 80s.  My favourites on this are ‘Sail Away’, ‘Gates Of Heaven’ and ‘American Excess’.