John Lees' Barclay James Harvest at ROSFEST

 

I had been worried about what the aged rockers would sound like, but I was not disappointed...the two main guys looked very old but played and sang very well, and there was a younger bassist, Craig Fletcher, who also provided beautiful vocal harmonies.  With two keyboard players, they sounded very atmospheric, and Woolley had a real mellotron which was blissful. 

 

They stuck with the group's peak period for all the material, but included some surprises like one of my favourite early songs, "Poor Wages", bolstered by a superb Lees solo at the end;  the acoustically gorgeous "Harbour"; the extended "Medicine Man";a fantastic version of "Suicide"; and "She Said",including a recorder solo by John.  At one point, John humbly apologized for his voice as he had been laid low by a cold picked up on the flight.  Classy all the way, but I have to say he sounded fine to me.

 

Woolly was really the MC, and injected a lot of humour into his introductions, including one in which he lamented peoples' need to pigeonhole musical styles that they simply don't understand.  It's hard to think of many groups who have received greater savaging by the press than BJH.  Sometimes I wondered if the critics might understand something that I didn't, that maybe BJH really was way too derivative and lacked their own identity.  But last weekend I could only conclude that they have quite a legacy, a body of warm and emotional melodic music skirting the fringes of prog, folk, and rock and roll.  This music will thrive long after the critics are silent.