PILGRIMAGE

One of the top classic Wishbone Ash albums which reached no. 14 in 1971, "Pilgrimage" (their second lp) contains the classic favourite tracks "Vas Dis", a jazzy, diddle-iddle scat-style instrumental, "Jailbait" and "Pilgrim", two of their all time classic stage favourites. engineered by Martin Birch at De Lane Lea, the sound quality is absolutely excellent. "Vas Dis" can only be described as amazing, blistering guitar and drum solos, love it or hate it, it's a brilliant way to start an album! The next track "the pilgrim" drifts in - soft, echoey guitars, building up to extremely catchy riffs and layers of the aforementioned scat-style "la-de-dah" vocals. Some brilliant lead guitar soloing and time changes, marching beats give clues to how far the band have progressed since their first album. "Jail Bait" boogies in and full use of the signature twin lead guitars are brought into the jam. Sounds very close to another boogie-style band we all know and love! "Alone" fades in, a short atmospheric instrumental piece adding to the varied mixture of moods on this album, followed by a genesis-style instrumental "Lullaby" (to me this would not sound out of place on an early genesis album), so the traditional prog "elements" are present here, again elegantly displayed on the beautiful "Valediction", sounding similar to "Errors of my Ways" on the first album, some nice solos, here and there i swear i can hear some Peter Green style influences on the guitar work. the last track "Where Were You Tomorrow" sounds raw and was recorded live, another out and out boogie/blues style rocker with a great guitar solo. Like i said there is a real mixture of moods on this album! One of my all time faves and gives many clues to the shape of things to come in the ultra classic "Argus", another essential prog masterpiece!