folk rewind
Not Forgotten: Kathryn Williams – Little Black Numbers
Kathryn Williams was one of those acts that laid the ground work for the folk revival of the last fifteen years without us realising it at the time. Much like her contemporary Eliza Carthy, there was a certain level of buzz around Kathryn Williams at the end of the 90s, and there were a few publications singing her …
Classic Album: Bob Dylan – Oh Mercy
As the 80s drew to a close it was difficult to escape the conclusion that Bob Dylan‘s muse had been largely AWOL since 1976’s Desire. Since that album’s release there had certainly been allusions to greatness but it was usually by way of songs that Dylan chose to omit from shoddy albums. As a result, despite …
Not Forgotten: Jethro Tull – Rock Island
1987’s Crest of a Knave went some way to re-establishing Jethro Tull as elder-statesmen of rock if not actual contenders. That album had even won a Grammy (and in doing so, annoyed a lot of Metallica fans), but other than that, it didn’t really break any new ground, other than being the sound of one of the …
Classic Compilation: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young – So Far
For years I shied away from the work of Crosby, Stills and Nash (both with and without Neil Young). There was something a little too soft and fluffy about them, and they seemed to embody the self-congratulatory happy-clappy West Coast vibe of millionaire rock stars totally out of touch with their audience. They were the …
Not Forgotten: Jethro Tull – This Was
For those that are familiar with the more complex and progressive output of Jethro Tull from the 70s, a first listen of their 1968 debut album, This Was, can come as quite a shock. Although it has always been obvious that Tull were influenced, at least in in some part by the blues, the fact …
Not Forgotten: Neil Young – Comes a Time
Comes A Time is generally seen as Neil Young cycling back to the more laid back sounds of the hugely successful Harvest, and is therefore one of Young’s gentlest albums by some considerable distance. Actually it’s so laid-back that it’s almost horizontal in places, which can makes for a pleasant, if not exactly engaging, listen. …
Not Forgotten: Jethro Tull – A Passion Play
Jethro Tull had made their point with Thick as a Brick. Progressive rock simply didn’t have to be overblown and pompous, it could be cheeky, subversive, and (dare I say it) fun. Having successfully lampooned the genre with stunning results resulting in an album which was far better than the majority who took this sort …
Not Forgotten: Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Rising slowly over the horizon of a fractured, but ever evolving modern music scene in 2008, The Fleet Foxes self-titled debut didn’t so much dazzle, as glow warmly, encouraging you to bask in its radiance as it did so. While all this had been done before (their enthusiastically reckless use of reverb recalls My Morning …
Not Forgotten: José Feliciano – Feliciano!
There have been numerous times in the history of popular song when quiet has proved to be the new the new loud, in fact it is something that happens so frequently, that every few years a new generation manages to discover the singular delights of José Feliciano, and this pleasant album of acoustic covers of …
Classic Album: Simon & Garfunkel – Bookends
For those that purchased Bookends when it was first released in 1968, it might have come as something of a surprise that a folk-pop duo would have taken on board some of the psychedelic influences of some of their rowdier contemporaries. Yet there are the heavy electronic sounds that open up “Save the Life of …