New Strawbs Album for 2023!

For those who want to preorder from Esoteric:

NEW STRAWBS ALBUM - THE MAGIC OF IT ALL
DOCUMENTARY FILM TO FOLLOW  NEW 

Cherry Red press release announces the new Strawbs album, to be released on CD, vinyl and download on 14 Jul 2023.

You can pre-order the album from Cherry Red from the Cherry Red website. Purchasers will get signed postcards whilst stocks last.

"THE MAGIC OF IT ALL

The new Strawbs studio album was recorded in Cape Town in 2022.
David Cousins, Blue Weaver, and John Ford from classic 1970s Strawbs
join with the some of the finest musicians and singers in South Africa.

Strawbs were high in the charts with Grave New World and Bursting at the Seams fifty years ago in the early 1970s. It coincided with a pivotal moment in the struggle for freedom in South Africa when students and workers launched a new wave of resistance against so-called “resettlement”. The resistance in South Africa identified with Strawbs songs, especially "Part of the Union", "Lay Down", and "New World". Strawbs albums sold well and became highly prized.

Recognising this, South Africa documentary maker, Niel van Deventer, approached David Cousins with the idea of producing a documentary about Strawbs and the band’s influence around the world. Niel wanted to film while new songs were being recorded in a Cape Town studio. David Cousins came up with a bunch of his finest songs, Blue Weaver flew over to produce the sessions and co-write some of the songs, while John Ford joined in with his contribution to the songs from New York.

The album is called The Magic Of It All - 11 brand-new songs recorded at the Academy of Sound Engineering in Cape Town in Sep 2022. Engineer Peter Pearlson worked with Paul Simon when he was recording South African musicians for the Graceland album. The South African musicians on this album include Mauritz Lotz, Schalk Joubert, Kevin Gibson, Byron Abrahams, Simangele Mashazi, Marzia Barry and Luna Paige. Cathryn Craig and Nicole Tee joined the singers from the UK.

David Cousins says: “The Academy of Sound Engineering is a college for training young audio engineers. We were surrounded by several students every day while we recorded, and they were involved in setting up the studio and lining up the desk. They learned a lot – and so did I. It was magic!”

Blue Weaver says: “It really was 'Magic' working in Cape Town especially having such great musicians and an engineer who made my job very easy. It was wonderful also to see how the students reacted to our ways of recording live in the studio and to answer their questions. I‘m looking forward to seeing the documentary especially the "fly on the wall" video recordings that were made during the sessions.“

The Magic Of It All is released simultaneously on vinyl, CD and download by Cherry Red on 14 July. The documentary "The Magic Of It All" will be released later this year."