NOEL MURPHY - Murf (Village Thing, 1973)

On its way

TUCKER ZIMMERMAN - same (Village Thing, 1972) @320

This album by Tucker Zimmerman, the second, was released in two different countries, years and labels (in Germany on Autogramm, 1971, and in UK on Village Thing one year later). For those who know his first LP, "Ten songs" (Regal Zonophone, 1969), it might be difficult to recognize the author. There we have some very nice acoustic songs ("Roadrunner" and "Alpha centauri" above all) drowned among others with rock arrangements.  Here, instead, all the electrical gear and equipment have disappeared, this is a real folk album and I personally prefer it this way.  TZ sings and plays his 12 string guitar and other instruments (with P. Chapelle's help on track 5) - but I fundamentally think that these songs would render at their best where no other instruments are employed, first of all this kind of "vibrato children organ" (how can I otherwise define it?), which I find rather disturbing, especially tracks 1 and 6. Often the voice is brought to the verge of "falsetto", like on track 2, and many melodies shine thanks to their "not resolving" harmonical solutions, especially "Left hand of Moses". My favourite is "Canary island rain". I personally find it great that TZ had M° Goffredo Petrassi as a teacher for composition.

The vinyl is in quite good conditions, the scan is 320 bitrate MP3

Your COUNTESS

PAUL SLADE - Dutchman (CBS, 1972)

Very good album, his second and best, many acoustic guitars and some too-electrical arrangement solutions, at times, but also a group of really beautiful songs, with "Train song" on top, for me....  Paul Slade recorded his first two LPs on CBS, the only ones with some real folky lymph in their veins; from 1974 he often recorded songs in French, not much common for an Englishman.  The title can be related to the (ghostly?) Vasseau drawing on the sleeve, from the legend of the cursed Flying Dutchman, which Heinrich Heine and Richard Wagner took inspiration from, about 150 - 170 years ago...

I'm also going to post his first album sometime soon - errands permitting.
Some good songs in it, but inferior to "Dutchman".

"Life of a man" (CBS, 1971)

Your COUNTESS VANESSA

SPIROGYRA - The return of SPIROGYRA on stage, June 2010!

THE RETURN OF

SPIROGYRA

LIVE IN CONCERT at the UNION CHAPEL,

London, 6 JUNE 2010

The cover of Spirogyra's marvellous live album, recorded 1974, coming soon on these columns for you!

Love and gratitude to

MARTIN COCKERHAM

the great survivor of Progressive - Folk,

who leads the resurged group on stage for this concert

- more infos will follow -

Your COUNTESS