Link to Living Tradition Homepage

REVIEW FROM www.livingtradition.co.uk

 


 

 

 
RALPH MCTELL "The Best of ." ESACD 880 Double CD
DONOVAN
"What's Been Did and What's Been Hid" CMRCD 361
DONOVAN
"Fairytale" CMRCD 360
LINDISFARNE
"Anthology - Road to Kingdom Come" ESACD 884 Double CD

British singer-songwriting anthologised and re-released by these nice people at Castle Music (again)! The Ralph McTell double is a elightful trawl through Ralph's back-catalogue with most of the favourites there ... Streets of London, Spiral Staircase, Factory Girl etc - all those songs I learned from the songbook, way back when. It's a lovely collection, but as with the Jansch/etc stuff above - such CDs already exist. Do we need more? The same can be said for the Lindisfarne collection - excellent, good-time, fine songwriting, songs about wee-wees against the wall that made me titter as a schoolboy - nostalgia and much more, but nothing significant that isn't in earlier "Best ofs". However, Lindisfarne completists will enjoy the live tracks and this is a great CD to have if you only own one by Lindisfarne.

The Donovan items are arguably slightly more interesting, as they are part of Castle's nice programme of re-issuing vintage material in old-style packaging, re-mastered and bonus-tracked. This is Donovan as skilled and engaging Dylan-imitator, able to produce memorable songs like Colours and Catch the Wind. I remember learning them from a "Best of Donovan" on a cheapie record label back around 1970! These actual albums are a little before my time as an active folkie, so it's interesting, intriguing and instructive to hear them as they were at the time - in the order intended. Latterly, Donovan drifted into an equally engaging hippy-dippy phase and it's fun to hear the Beatle-capped troubadour before the metamorphosis took place!

In all of this, the Donovan CDs entertained me the most, perversely enough - almost entirely because it's "new" to me in this (original) form - whereas all the rest is largely in my CD drawer anyway, in some form.

Alan Murray

Secure On-line mailorder service Buy this CD online from The Listening Post
The Listening Post is the CD mailorder service of The Living Tradition magazine.
This album was reviewed in Issue 50 of The Living Tradition magazine.