STORYTELLER

I was the one who suggested this band to the Prog Folk team and I wish to express my gratitude for their effective work. A couple of months ago I was checking the recent or upcoming prog/-ish releases by Svart Records (I've written several liner notes to their domestic re-releases). This one, an obscure British psych/prog folk-rock album from 1970 -- even if it wasn't yet in ProgArchives -- immediately raised my curiosity, and happily here we are!

Storyteller was a quintet where each member contributed to the vocals or vocal harmonies. Caroline Attard's beautiful voice naturally being essential, I suppose the other leading vocalists were the ones who wrote the songs, ie. guitarist Roger Moon and Terry Durham, a non-playing singer who had released a solo album (this fact was missing from the re-release liner notes, as well as the fact that Durham made the cover art of not only this debut but also the second and last album More Pages, 1971. These bits of information I just happened to read from a 3-cd folk rock compilation featuring a song from this album). A special feature to distinguish this music from the more typical late 60's/ early 70's folk-rock such as Fairport Convention or Steeleye Span is the addition of a string arrangement to several songs.

The songs, 13 in total, are mostly rather short. The lively opener 'Floor of the Park' makes me think of some Magna Carta song, can't remember which one. The next one is really charming for its alterations of tempo, the dual vocals and the sweet-sounding strings. 'Alice Brown' is a moody but diverse little song that reminds me of The Moody Blues c. 1966-7. Caroline is the lead vocalist on the dreamy, string-dominated 'The Lake'. Nice flute on the serene 'Over the Hills'. Sadly the guest appearances are not specified.

The vinyl's second side begins with the brief 'Story' centering on supposedly Durham's spoken words. 'First Week in January' reminds me of some string-arranged Ralph McTell songs. All songs are not necessarily very great (I'm not fond of e.g. 'Song for Buster', about the silent movie legend, and the final song 'Loves's Blind' is a sub-par filler with a country flavour), but the album whole really feels highly inspired and many-sided in a charming and joyful way. If you're not allergic to the sweetness of string arrangements, this album is a warmly recommended gem of psychedelically nuanced folk-rock.