THE GREEN MAN

After returning with the stunning Man And Myth album, it's time to look at some of Roy Harper's ignored later day material. 2001's The Green Man was everything that 1971's Stormcock was not. As with Stormcock, there are no bass or drums featured on The Green Man. But gone are the obtuse lyrics, death march tempos, lack of truly beautiful melodies, and the occasional flat vocals or Roy's vibrato heavy over singing that dragged Stormcock down almost to a standstill. (The codas on Same Old Rock and Me And My Woman not withstanding.) The Green Man is a celebration of the intrinsic beauty of the earth (The Green Man, Wishing Well) as well as a condemnation of those that abuse that beauty (New England, Rushing Camelot) without sounding preachy. The song Solar Wind Sculptures is about the how the world appears through the eyes of an child with Down's Syndrome described in words and music. Outstanding. Roy has me convinced. Sexy Woman and Midnight Sun are celebrations of both physical and romantic love.. The catchy and quirky New England is about turning all ideas into intellectual properties. The Monster is about the underlying insanity in all of us and its unending domino effect on society. Both the emotionally charged The Monster and the lamenting Rushing Camelot are the centerpieces of the album, but every song is important to the album's overarching musical themes and message.

Roy is joined on this album with Canada's Jeff Martin, of the group the Tea Party, who is outstanding on 12 string acoustic, six string acoustic slide, mandolin and an honest-to-God hurdy-gurdy. Accented by ulleann pipes and whistles on a few songs, the album has a wonderful baroque feeling while being completely fresh sounding and truly immersed in topics of the the 21st century. All 11 songs on the album are truly melodic wonders. Harper's vocals are majestic and impassioned. Indeed, his perfect pitch voice is almost an instrument in itself. The Green Man is truly the unsung masterpiece in Harper's catalog. 5 stars!

Sad faith is the one of our musical heroes of the 70's forgot by most, who happen to drive their road since then to a diminishing audience. Case in point, the one and only review at this point in time for this lone first decade of the 2000's studio album of a once celebrated folk prog singer. At this stage of his career, Harper probably had no thought of even riddling the airwaves anyway. As he spend his nineties in trying to adapt his sound to the times with no effect, why not come back to basics? Helped on all sort of strings by Jeff Martin of one Tea Party canadian alternative band which always was on the frindge of prog, this is an all acoustic affair bringing back fond memories of his beginnings but informed by his experience, in life and music. A return to Stormcock as mentioned by the other reviewer, just a more concise affair, and all the more efficient for that. In all honesty, i write as i listen to it for the very first time, stunned by the majesty of one of the very few album of his i ignored. And i thought i knew nearly all his significant work! What i loose in matter of reflection is of no importance, as the essential is to point that The Green Man is truly a "chef d'oeuvre" within an abondant discography. And thus double the amount of reviews...