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| Author |
Message |
| 21 new of 157 responses total. |
mcnally
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response 137 of 157:
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Feb 18 21:48 UTC 2004 |
It might be a small part of the misfortune of the divorce, but how sad
to have to break up the instrument collection.
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krj
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response 138 of 157:
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Feb 18 22:29 UTC 2004 |
Here's Dave Pegg's statement on the instrument sale, from the official
Jethro Tull website. (Pegg spent several years playing with Jethro Tull.)
http://www.j-tull.com/news/davepeggsale.cfm
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dbratman
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response 139 of 157:
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Feb 25 07:13 UTC 2004 |
Pegg says he's selling the instruments voluntarily, so that he can give
his wife 50% of the proceeds. It wasn't forced on him in the
settlement.
Sad that this may be the end of Cropredy, but all things have to. I
went to one festival, the 25th in 1992, and had such a good time that I
never went back. The combination of the great music (for they had a
lineup particularly to my tastes that year) and the novelty of it kept
me happy, and kept me from noticing things like the discomfort of
living in a wet cow pasture for three days. I feared that if I went
back, the wet and the cow pies would become my chief memory, and I
didn't want that to happen.
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krj
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response 140 of 157:
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Feb 25 15:26 UTC 2004 |
Note for future investigation: I'm listening to a replay of the Celtic
Heartbeat show on BBC Radio Wales and they've just played something very nice
by the Duncan McFarlane Band, very much in the geezer folk-rock style.
Here's the link I found. Looks like the album may only be available from
the band:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/duncan.mcfarlane/cds/cdsintro.htm
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krj
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response 141 of 157:
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Mar 10 20:14 UTC 2004 |
Something new which finally straggled in: I'd been thinking about
ordering it since late November, finally ordered it in late January
and then Amazon.co.uk took over a month to deliver it.
The album is by Skilda, title is "13 Dreams." Scottish folk-sortof
with a heavy flavoring of dance pop percussion and electric guitars.
Four songs are traditional, the rest are original but in a consistent
enough style that I can't tell which are the traditional ones.
I'm a sucker for electric guitars in a folk context.
The band is a protege' of Capercaille, their album is released through
Capercaillie's label Survival Records, and Skilda are promoted somewhat
on the Capercaillie web site last I looked.
The Scots certainly seem to be the market leaders in folk-techno.
Needless to say, I first heard this on BBC Radio Scotland, probably
on the Celtic Connections show.
Now I have to make some time for the Anna Massie album, also from
Scotland.
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krj
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response 142 of 157:
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Apr 9 21:09 UTC 2004 |
I've had the 2004 Steeleye Span album, THEY CALLED HER BABYLON, on
hand for almost a week now, and I've played it a couple of times. My
initial reaction is that it's like a friendly, comfy pair of
slippers. Maddy sounds great, even though it's clear she's getting
older along with the rest of us. So far there's only one song, the
title track, which makes me wanna hit the "next track" button.
Mostly I like Maddy's lead vocals the best, but I'm even getting to
appreciate the version of "Dives and Lazarus" on which one of the
guys sings lead. (Sorry, the CD case is in the car...) (I still
like the June Tabor & Oyster Band version of "Dives" better though!)
So: not as good as classic 1970s Steeleye Span; probably not the best of
the reunion-era albums, but in the top half of that group. I think fans
will find it worthwhile. (You can compare this with my reactions to
the most recent Fairport Convention studio albums, which I haven't
wanted to play through once; I've now scratched new Fairport
recordings off my shopping list.)
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dbratman
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response 143 of 157:
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Apr 28 05:47 UTC 2004 |
Steeleye's "They Called Her Babylon" has made its way here. The band
sounds good: Maddy Prior is in fine voice, Rick Kemp's vocal croaking
is managable despite there being way too much of it, and new guitarist
Ken Nicol fits in well to a still-cracking instrumental sound.
But the songs are another matter. Except for "Heir of Linne", there's
not a one I didn't like better on first listening than on second. That
is a very, very bad sign.
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mcnally
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response 144 of 157:
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Aug 11 20:52 UTC 2004 |
The most recent EP release from one of my favorite bands, Yo La Tengo,
has a cover of a song called "Needle of Death" by Bert Jansch.
It's a pretty bleak song, but the cover interests me enough that I'd
be interested in hearing more about Jansch's solo career as well as his
years in Pentangle. Where would be a good place to start checking out
his work?
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krj
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response 145 of 157:
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Aug 18 02:20 UTC 2004 |
That's probably my cue, and I don't have much to offer; I've picked
up a number of Jansch's albums from his 40?-year career but nothing
leaps out, he's very consistent.
Bert Jansch first comes to light as part of the British folk/acoustic
blues scene in the 1960s; a cover of Davy Graham's instrumental tune
"Angi" made his initial reputation. He's still active; today
I heard a new song on BBC Radio Scotland. The only band he was
in was Pentangle; the classic lineup from 1966?-1971?, and then
he was in the reunion band for a few years in the 1980s.
I'll have to google the name of that cover
and see if I can find out where Jansch originally recorded it.
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mcnally
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response 146 of 157:
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Aug 18 16:14 UTC 2004 |
Apparently it's on his eponymous debut album from 1965.
Unrelated: I tried to look that up last night while I was upstairs
in our house's living room, browsing on my Mac laptop. Unfortunately
they've screwed up the HTML for my formerly-beloved All Music Guide's
home page so badly it wouldn't render on IE under MacOS 9 well enough
for me to even find the search box to type in Jansch's name. <sigh>
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krj
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response 147 of 157:
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Aug 18 18:14 UTC 2004 |
I can't recall if I have that CD or not. amazon.co.uk has samples
from the first 4 or 5 tracks.
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mcnally
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response 148 of 157:
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Aug 18 18:43 UTC 2004 |
I presume the track "Anji" that you mentioned Jansch covering is the
same one that Simon & Garfunkel covered on "The Sounds of Silence"?
It's also on this first eponymous solo album, apparently, if that jogs
your memory.
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krj
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response 149 of 157:
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Aug 18 20:57 UTC 2004 |
Likely it is; Paul Simon was hanging out with the British folkies in
that mid-60s period; it's long been known that he borrowed Martin
Carthy's arrangement of "Scarborough Fair."
Chumbawamba borrowed "Anji" and wove it into a song on their "Readymades"
CD, which makes extensive use of British folk samples, riffs and guest
vocals.
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twenex
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response 150 of 157:
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Aug 19 14:54 UTC 2004 |
I suspect "Scarborough Fair" constitutes many people's sole knowledge of folk
music. Probably been responsible for turning off thousands of potential
devotees.
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mcnally
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response 151 of 157:
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Aug 19 16:58 UTC 2004 |
I don't imagine it would be easy to find thousands of people who strongly
dislike Simon & Garfunkel's recording of "Scarborough Fair / Canticle"
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twenex
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response 152 of 157:
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Aug 19 17:42 UTC 2004 |
OK, then. Maybe I'm just picky.
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krj
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response 153 of 157:
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Sep 24 16:31 UTC 2004 |
Well poot. The Ark says that Richard Thompson's "1000 Years of Popular
Music" show is sold out, nearly one month in advance. Grrr.
I suppose I should check Ticketmaster, but I don't even know where there
is a ticketmaster outlet any more.
On the positive side, I just saved $70 on the two tickets.
:/
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anderyn
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response 154 of 157:
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Sep 24 18:40 UTC 2004 |
I think it was sold out even earlier than this, since I got a "no are you
kidding" response when I wistfully mentioned I'd like to attend. :-)
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dbratman
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response 155 of 157:
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Mar 28 10:23 UTC 2005 |
Having realized that I'd completely forgotten Steeley Span's "They
Called Her Babylon" in the year since it arrived (and the year since I'd
listened to it), I got out all four Steeleye albums I have from the last
7 years and gave them all a good listen.
Verdict: The two albums without Maddy Prior are utterly hopeless. Gay
Woods is a good singer but not outstanding. Bob Johnson tries to sing
material completely unsuited for him. Tim Harries' songwriting is
unattractive. However good Dave Mattacks was as a drummer for Fairport,
he's not suited for Steeleye: overbearing without the tightness of Liam
Genocky.
The two more recent albums are much better. "Present" is the one that
sounds like an old pair of shoes: just pleasant. "They Call Her
Babylon" improves on further relistening, although with only one
outstanding track, "Heir of Linne", it's not a great Steeleye album.
But at least it has the sound and spirit of the early-mid 1990s albums.
If I ever write another history of Steeleye, I think I have the names
for the periods:
The Early Years (1970-72)
The Golden Age (1973-76)
The Interval (1977-78)
The Fallow Period (1980-89)
The Silver Age (1990-96)
The Black Years (1998-2000)
The Third Revival (2002- )
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anderyn
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response 156 of 157:
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Mar 28 17:14 UTC 2005 |
I agree with your assessment, though I kind of like some of the other songs
on "They Call Her Babylon". It's just not as good as the older albums.
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krj
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response 157 of 157:
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May 25 20:43 UTC 2005 |
A track from the new Ashley Hutchings project just became this week's
ear-worm. The lyrics have some problems, but the tune is pretty good
and the arrangement is first rate. Hutchings' new project is
a band called The Rainbow Chasers, which is Hutchings, two young women
and one young guy; everybody sings, and the women play violin and viola
so there is sort of a poppy string-quartet thing going on.
Hutchings was the guest on this week's Mike Harding show (which I just
missed, sigh, but I have the replay available) so most likely more
tracks from the new album are on that show.
Ashley Hutchings, for those who don't know, is *the* most important
figure from the 1960's & 1970's British folk-rock scene -- as an
intellectual influence and organizer, rather than as a pure musician.
Hutchings was a founding member of Fairport Convention and he was
the one who pushed the band into working more extensively with
traditional music.
He quit Fairport and organized Steeleye Span to focus even more on
traditional music, and then he quit Steeleye Span and started
The Albion Band to focus even more on English music (meaning less
of the Irish and Scottish songs). Probably half or more of the
classic British folk-rock albums from that period either have
Ashley playing on them, or are by bands that Ashley started.
(And his output since 1990 has been mostly turgid, MOR pop crap --
I have bought hardly any of his voluminous output in the last decade.)
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