FULL BLOOM, ACOUSTIC STRAWBS LIVE

This album is a live concert recorded in front of about 200 people at Natural Sound, a Hi-Fi store located in Kitchener, Ontario. The band consisted of Dave Cousins, Dave Lambert, and Brian Willoughby playing acoustic guitars, banjos, and mandolins and singing classic Strawbs songs. Possibly because of their folkiness and possibly because of it being acoustic but at times this reminded me of the Bob Dylan MTV Unplugged concert. My version of the CD has a slightly different playlist than the one that is listed here on PA. On my version, there are 15 songs with the 4th song being Witchwood and the 14th song being Down By The Sea, and my version doesn't include Remembering or You and I (When We Were Young). The liner notes mention that they didn't include some songs due to the limit of one CD, so it is possible that there are multiple versions of this CD. The sound quality is very good as according to the liner notes it was taken directly from the soundboard, with the only adjustment being that the audience noises were eliminated. This album is probably only for collectors and fans of Strawbs music, or for fans of acoustic guitar played folk music. It probably isn't for people who prefer drums, and horns, and bass and keyboards since none of these instruments were present during this concert. I am rating this with 2 stars in accordance with the site guidelines that this is for collectors/fans only. This is not meant to be taken as a bad rating, however. I feel that this deserves 4 stars as an excellent addition to any Strawbs music collection, but not necessarily to any prog music collection. It is also good, but not essential, but I feel that the most appropriate category is for collectors/fans only because I think that it would mostly appeal to fans of the Strawbs rather than to the general prog public.

Good Acoustic Set.

Interesting story to this one. The promoter in Kitchener, Ontario (a small city close to where I live), who owns a local store, booked a live show for acoustic Strawbs, but couldn't find a venue. So, he cleared out his shop and set up the gig in the store! And the audience was small and (according to the liner notes) not well versed in the Strawbs, and so sat quietly and politely all night. One result is a very clean sounding recording without much of the natural reverb added by a hall, nor as much of the kind of audience noise that usually accompanies a live gig. This album has Brian Willoughby and Dave Lambert rounded out the acoustic trio. The set is very good. They play classics like "Witchwood", "Ghosts", "The River", "Hero and Heroine" and "The Winter and the Summer" very well (among others). And special to this album, they play Brian Willoughby's song "Alice". For those who like the acoustic Strawbs, this is well worth getting. It is not "essential" though, given there are so many very good acoustic Strawbs albums out there. But this definitely deserves at least 3 PA stars. I give it 7.4 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, which is quite good for a "greatest hits" type live album (I have to rate live albums a bit differently that studio albums, at least the live albums of a "greatest hits" variety, as even if the songs are played really well, the live album needs to do something new and different to be considered "excellent", which is why I give this 7.4. However, the performances are all very good, much better than the more recent studio versions of the old albums, like 'Hero and Heroine in Absentia', which is not as good as this live album).

This live album finds the early Acoustic Strawbs trio of Dave Cousins, Dave Lambert and Brian Willoughby (Chas Cronk would replace Willoughby after this tour) flashing their wares at an audio shop in Canada that was captured with excellent, if slightly amateurish, sound quality (a slightly lopsided sound mix on occasion being the culprit) that was taken from the soundboard. What the band performs best are the songs taken from their all acoustic album "Baroque And Roll" like "Ghosts" and "Tears And Pavan". These songs showcase the trio's amazing ability to supplement all the melodies, counter melodies and electric guitar leads, naturally, found on the studio versions. The trio also does an amazing acoustic version of "Autumn" from the "Hero And Heroine" album, with Lambert and Willoughby doing a clinic on guitar interplay on that song's magnificent opening musical section. Cousins and Lambert cover the alternating lead and harmony vocals flawlessly and do the same on all of the songs.

Where the little band struggles is on a couple of the more heavily orchestrated songs like "Down By The Sea" and the title track to "Hero And Heroine", where no amount of loud manic strumming or deft playing can make up for the missing orchestra and mellotron/keyboard parts found on the original studio versions. Still, it's fascinating to hear them try.

For playing and singing their hearts out so marvelously, 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 seems quite deserving for these hard working veteran prog rockers caught on a great night with exceptional sound quality.