WISHBONE ASH

Absolutely amazing debut album from Wishbone Ash, though on hearing it for the first time some may wonder where the prog elements come into it as they boogie their way through the first two tracks, "Blind Eye" and " Lady Whiskey". Engineered by Martin Birch who many may know worked on albums by Deep Purple, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Whitesnake and Iron Maiden, the album reached no.34 in the UK album charts by 1971. An unusual feature of the group, originally from Devon, was the twin lead guitarists Andy Powell and Ted Turner, who sang on the album along with Martin Turner on bass. the group played a gig with Deep Purple, and after jamming with Ritchie Blackmore during a sound check they were recommended to Purple's producer Derek Lawrence and they never looked back. the third track on side one of the album, "Errors of my Ways" slows the tempo and features a wonderful guitar solo, one of my personal favourites. The next track, "Queen of Torture" has a similar boogie style to the first two. On side two the first track "Handy" is eleven minutes long and starts off as a slow bluesy instrumental featuring some fine twin lead guitar work, short bass solos and a classic drum solo from Steve Upton, and develops in to a blues/scat style jam session. one of the real all-time-classic pieces Wishbone Ash is famous for is the last ten-minute track "Phoenix", which really shows off the lead guitar effects to the full. The signature twin-guitar boogie style sound is here, and includes a snatch from Purple's "Child in Time" and though this LP obviously may not seem as sophisticated as the classic albums that followed, you must admit this is one hell of a debut. I deeply regret not seeing them live, but i'll definitely catch 'em next time they're round! Sound quality of this album on my original vinyl issue on MCA is excellent - detailed, spacious and balanced, I hope they have preserved this on transition to cd. An essential masterpiece of British Prog.