TO CRY YOU A SONG: A COLLECTION OF TULL TALES (JETHRO TULL TRIBUTE)

I bought this CD a couple of years. Honestly, I picked it up, mainly because of two reasons. The names of the artists involved in this project and because this is a tribute to one of the best and most important bands, but also because they're one of my favorite progressive groups of ever. Sincerely, I must confess that I gave only a very small importance to this album, when I bought it, and because of that, I just listened to it a few months ago.

The album was released in 1996 by Magna Carta and has fourteen tracks. The first track "A Tull Tale" is an instrumental track written specifically for this tribute by Magellan featuring Stan Johnson, Trent Gardner and Roger Patterson. The second track "Aqualung" is the title track of "Aqualung" and is also performed by Magellan featuring Trent Gardner, Wayne Gardner and Roger Patterson. The third track "Up The 'Pool" is a track of "Living In The Past" featuring Roy Harper and Colm O'Sullivan. The fourth track "Nothing Is Easy" is a track of "Stand Up" featuring John Wetton, Mick Abrahams, Clive Bunker, Glenn Cornick, Ian McDonald, Phil Manzanera and Robert Berry. The fifth track "Mother Goose" is a track of "Aqualung" featuring Lief Sorbye, Mike Varney and Robert Berry. The sixth track "Minstrel In The Gallery" is the title track of "Minstrel In The Gallery" featuring Robert Berry and Lief Sorbye. The seventh track "One Brown Mouse" is a track of "Heavy Horses" and is performed by Echolyn featuring Brett Kull, Ray Weston and Paul Ramsey. The eighth track "Cat's Squirrel" is a track of "This Was" featuring Charlie Musselwhite, Derek Trucks, Mick Abrahams, Clive Bunker, Mike Summerland and Robert Berry. The ninth track "To Cry You A Song" is a track of "Benefit" featuring Glen Hughes, Mick Abrahams, Clive Bunker, Glenn Cornick, Derek Sherinian and Robert Berry. The tenth track "A New Day Yesterday" is a song of "Stand Up" featuring Robby Steinhardt, Ian McDonald, Mick Abrahams, Phil Manzanera, Robert Berry, Clive Bunker, Glenn Cornick and Mike Vible. The eleventh track "Teacher" is a track of "Benefit" and is performed by Wolfstone featuring Ivan Drever, Stuart Eaglesham, Duncan Chisholm, Derek Sherinian, Mike Abrahams, Clive Bunker and Glenn Cornick. The twelfth track "Living In The Past" is the title track of "Living In The Past" featuring Keith Emerson, Mick Abrahams, Clive Bunker and Glenn Cornick. The thirteenth track "Locomotive Breath" is a track of "Aqualung" and is performed by Tempest featuring Robert Berry, Lief Sorbye, Rob Wullenjohn, Adolfo Lazo, Jay Nania and Michael Mullen. The fourteenth track "Life Is A Long Song" is a track of "Living In The Past" featuring Matt Pegg, Dave Pegg, Tom Mates and Rob Armstrong.

"To Cry You A Song" is a very nice album and very pleasant to listen to. It has a very interesting set of songs from Jethro Tull, despite it comprises almost only tracks from their first albums, but the new versions are in general good. For me, the album has four tracks of quality far above the others, which are "A Tull Tale", "Aqualung", "Minstrel In The Gallery" and "One Brown Mouse". About the remaining tracks, some are more interesting than others, with the exception of "Cat's Squirrel", which is for me, a track which passed by me in relation to the other remaining tracks.

About the four songs mentioned by me, I have to say something more about them. "A Tull Tale" is a great performance of Magellan that fits perfectly well into the music of Jethro Tull and is a great tribute to them that passes through various pieces of their music. The version of "Aqualung" made by Magellan is, in my humble opinion, a perfect choice by this great band, not only because, it's for me, one of the best songs of Jethro Tull, but also because it fits perfectly in the Magellan's music. I've listened to this version many times, and honestly, I don't consider this version inferior to the original. "Minstrel In The Gallery" is also, in my humble opinion, one of the best tracks of Jethro Tull and represents also a great version of the original composition. "One Brown Mouse" is one of the simplest and most beautiful songs of Jethro Tull and to my taste, this startlingly original version of Echolyn is simply brilliant and amazing. This is probably my favorite track of the album. It makes shining the name of this great American band.

Conclusion: Like Gatot, I also think that a tribute album can't be considered as a masterpiece. However, I would like to put the question in another way. Can a tribute album to a band be essential to any progressive musical collection? I think the answer can be yes if it's an album with a bunch of good songs that perfectly represents the band's repertoire, or when the new versions are great and well performed by those artists. However, in this case and unlike Gatot, I don't consider this album essential to any progressive musical collection mainly due to two reasons. First, it isn't fully representative of the repertoire of the band. Second, in general, I don't consider it, an album of great new versions of the original titles. Anyway, in spite of everything I wrote before, "To Cry You A Song", consists in the vast majority, of interesting versions, especially the wonderful versions made by Magellan and Echolyn, of which I'm a big fan.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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