Folk rock
Classic Album: Jethro Tull – Songs From the Wood
The rise of punk triggered a wide variety of reactions among more established acts. Led Zeppelin nodded in approval, and continued to be Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd channelled their own disenfranchised feelings into the bleak Animals. A few other acts underwent underwent various identity crises, with some attempting to go ‘pop’ with mixed success (Emerson, …
Not Forgotten: Cat Stevens – Tea for The Tillerman
Maybe it was a reaction to being a social misfit during my school days, but while my contemporaries were falling underneath the spell of various grunge and hip hop acts back in the early 90s, I had started to pay more and more attention to my parents’ album collection. As teenagers during the 70s, they …
Not Forgotten: Bob Dylan – Christmas in the Heart
Ah, Bob Dylan’s Christmas in the Heart. Oh how music fans far and wide chuckled at the idea of one of the 20th Century’s song writing icons deciding that it would be a shrewd career move to release an album of traditional Christmas Carols and festive favourites. Down the decades Christmas albums in general have …
Not Forgotten: Jethro Tull – Stand Up
For many fans 1969’s Stand Up is where the Jethro Tull’s story really starts. That’s not to say that their debut, This Was, wasn’t any good, but Stand Up is where Jethro Tull started to sound like no one other act than Jethro Tull. In the few months that split the release of This Was …
Classic Album: Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited
Imagine the shock of hearing Highway 61 Revisited the first time in the mid 60s. You’re a Bob Dylan fan, you like his politicised songwriting as it fit in neatly with your ideals and opinions. Sure his material has become slightly less political over recent albums, but he’s still a great songwriter. You can even …
Not Forgotten: Cat Stevens – Teaser and the Firecat
Teaser And The Firecat is in many ways the twin of the superb Tea for the Tillerman, which has been one of my favourite albums since my early teens and one that meant so much to me over the years, that I didn’t want my illusions of Cat Stevens shattered by finding out that the …
Not Forgotten: Neil Young – After the Gold Rush
Always knowingly wilful, Neil Young has never been an easy musician to pin down. Having cut his teeth with Buffalo Springfield, his solo career started off with a solid enough debut of relatively standard singer-songwriter fare, a style he almost immeadiately ditched in favour of hooking up with half of garage band The Rockets, renaming …
Not Forgotten: Lindisfarne – Live
Quick! Name one British folk rock act of the 1970s! Okay, so who actually mentioned Lindisfarne? Precious few I imagine, as they’re now primarily for an arse-clenchingly awful novelty duet. Those that do delve a little further into their career will be rewarded with a clutch of hit singles and a selection of albums of …
Album Review: United Bible Studies – ‘So As To Preserve The Mystery’
In an effort to maintain a balanced sense of perspective, it is necessary to flambé ones objective juices, to periodically take a trip outside of what is often mistakenly referred to as your, “comfort zone”. United Bible Studies‘ latest release, ‘So As To Preserve The Mystery’, could be construed as one such foray. I have …
Not Forgotten: The Waterboys – This Is the Sea
Following a number of false starts, A Pagan Place had finally established The Waterboys as not only an act of great promise, and had come tantalisingly close to establishing them as one of the key acts of the decade and masters of the sort of epic and emotional Celtic rock that was poised to fill …