Folk&Country


MAFFITT/DAVIES The Rise & Fall Of Honesty Rev-Ola CD www.revola.co.uk


The folk duo Maffit & Davies were clearly not, outwardly at least, attempting to be psychedelic. Yet The Rise & Fall Of Honesty is unyieldingly


dreamlike and cerebral – their rising and falling vocals on Hoyt Axton’s ‘Kingswood Manor’ (not to mention the lyrics about the “rubber, paisley room”) encapsulate the feeling of heightened senses. At times they may sound like Val Doonican


smoking a hookah, but Nick Venet’s amazingly rich production builds on the duo’s folksy fireside voices and lightly picked acoustic guitars while the addition of tremeloed electric guitars, some haunting piano, the requisite eastern vibes of the tabla and James Gordon’s drumming certainly add colour.The overall effect can be placed alongside Simon & Garfunkel’s Bookends, Hearts & Flowers or Gene Clark. The Rise & Fall Of Honesty is a superb album


of meditative, richly arranged late ’60s Californian folk-rock, both comforting and a tad creepy. Shindig! scribe Tim Forster provides the classy essay. Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills


BRIDGET ST JOHN A Pocketful Of Starlight: The Best Of Bridget St John Cherry Red CD www.cherryred.co.uk


As Bridget herself suggests in the album’s sleeve notes, rather than a straightforward Best Of, a better title for this collection might have been something along


the lines of The Songs Most Associated With. Apart from Bridget’s 1995 take on ‘Catch A


Falling Star’, the privately issued ‘The Hole In Your Heart’ and a performance of John Martyn’s ‘The River’ recorded for John Peel’s Top Gear show in August ’69, all the material featured here comes from Bridget’s three albums on John Peel’s Dandelion label – Ask Me No Questions, Songs For The Gentle Man and Thank You For, plus her sole album on Chrysalis, Jumblequeen. Thanks to the distinctively dreamy and ethereal


quality of Bridget’s songwriting, the 19 selections that make up this collection are guaranteed to leave a lingering afterglow in the memory of all who hear them. Put simply, this is a treasury of unassuming magic. Grahame Bent


STEELEYE SPAN Another Parcel Of Steeleye Span: Their Second Five Chrysalis Albums 1976- 1989 EMI 3-CD


What with last year’s box set of their first five Chrysalis albums, Steeleye fans have not been starved of product of late, although the lack of bonus tracks on


this second set is particularly annoying.That said, it’s good to finally have everything in one neat, well-presented package taking up less space on


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Ian A Anderson contemplates his future as a ghost.


your shelf. Steeleye Span have proven just as sensible in


sticking to the folk-rock formula while lesser mortals attempt to point the accusing finger of commercial folly. Kicking off with the Mike Batt produced Rocket Cottage the band carried folk- rock through the storm of punk as if barely a whisper was ruffling the trees. Likewise Storm Force Ten from ’77 – whilst reviled at the time – seems to have passed through unblemished. The band soon fell apart after the weak Live At Last and the ’80s counted various reunions including the Sails Of Sliver album and the poor Back In Line (thankfully not included here). But the glorious return to form of Tempted And


Tried which saw the band sell out venues all over the UK in ’89 was a true vindication and stands as one of their best albums ever. Richard Allen


THE STRAWBS Live At The BBC Volume One: In Session/Volume Two: In Concert Universal 2-CD It’s not often that a BBC session attains legendary


status but back in 1968 when The Strawbs appeared on John Peel’s Top Gear performing their highly original, chess-based, anti-war epic ‘The Battle’, not


many would have put odds on listeners being so taken by the haunting qualities of both the band and Dave Cousins’ songwriting enough to bombard the beeb’s switchboard demanding to know more. It’s fitting then that this two volume series


opens with that ’68 session and goes on to reveal the inventive talents of a band that was signed to A&M Records until the mid-70s. ‘Another Day’ is a choice moment from their


Tony Hooper folk incarnation, as is the studio version of ‘We’ll Meet Again Sometime’ previously only available on the ’70 live album. Alternate versions of album tracks originally found on From The Witchwood, Grave New World and Bursting At The Seams follow including the psychedelic folk of ‘Witchwood’, the ripping prog-psych of ‘Hangman And The Papist’ – resplendent with eye watering Rick Wakeman keyboard break – the gut wrenching mellotron horror of ‘NewWorld’ (with Wynder K


Frog’s Blue Weaver on keys), the sitar laden ‘Is It Today Lord?’ and the harmonic beauty of ‘Lady Fuschia’. The double live disc is an equal revelation with


four BBC In Concert recordings ranging from ’71 to ’74 – a panoramic display from innocent folk harmonies to dark and brooding guitar driven prog best exemplified by ‘The River/Down By The Sea’. Whether your interest is as a long-term fan or


you are just looking for a good introduction to The Strawbs these discs fulfil both purposes. Richard Allen


VARIOUS ARTISTS Ghosts From The Basement: Lost Songs, Dreams And Folkadelia From The Vaults Of Village Thing 1970-74 Weekend Beatnik CD www.weekendbeatnik.com


The subtitle says it all really. Village Thing was a record label, booking agency and recording operation based in and around Bristol and rural south


Gloucestershire. The brainchild of local folk mover Ian A Anderson and Bristol Troubadour manager John Turner, the label went on to release two dozen albums between 1970 and ’74, spawning some of the era’s most interesting and collectable “alternative folk” artifacts in the process. This superb 20-track compilation is the perfect introduction to the VT catalogue, featuring the cream of its eclectic roster of performers, from acknowledged flag-waver Wizz Jones to the virtually unknown Dave Evans to String Band wannabees The Sun Also Rises to legendary American “Zen banjoist” Derroll Adams. The music sounds incredibly good – surprising


given the crude recording techniques available at the time – and Anderson’s notes are affectionate and evocative. Andy Morten


HEDY WEST & BILL CLIFTON Getting Folk Out Of The Country Bear Family CD www.bear-family.de


German label Bear Family’s 35th anniversary celebrations continue with this legendary album, which saw country star Bill Clifton join forces with Georgia


mountain-raised folk exponent Hedy West at a London studio in 1972. The record was released on Folk Variety in ’74


and is now reissued with original artwork and booklet showing how deeply the duo knew and loved their music, singing their hearts out on songs often going back centuries, kept alive through the traditional “passing it on” method. For instance, ‘Blow Ye Gentle Winds’ is a 19th century love lament, while ‘Pity Me All Day’ is America’s oldest industrial textile song, printed on a North Eastern Broadside 140 years ago. Other songs go back even further, have native


American origins or reference presidents, but each impassioned performance gives a little insight into a huge, social-musical world in danger of dying out if operations like Bear Family don’t continue to keep it alive. Kris Needs


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