MÆSTOSO

Maestoso is Woolly Wolstenholme's first solo album, released just after he had left Barclay James Harvest. In many ways Woolly was the most progressively inclined member of that band and when he left they soon drifted towards more commercial territory (but then again, so did most bands in the 80's). However, there are some commercial sounding songs on this album as well.

Maestoso was originally the name of a song that Woolly had written for Barclay James Harvest but that had been rejected by the band. This song is here and it is hard to see why they rejected it, since it is far better than most late 70's Barclay James Harvest songs. Woolly would later also adopt the name Maestoso for his band.

What we find here are nine songs never straying too far away from Barclay James Harvest territory. Some of the songs, the best ones, are in the style of the material Woolly had written for the band in the 70's, like Beyond The Grave and In Search Of England. Other songs are more towards the style John Lees and Les Holroyd would write in. Melodic, mellow and slightly bombastic. There are also a couple of straight Pop songs like the opening Sail Away.

There are some lovely moments here and overall the album is a good one, but not great. Still, I would say that it is about as good as the better albums by Barclay James Harvest! Recommended for fans of that band. Woolly Wolstenholme's Maestoso would go on to make much better albums in the present millennium, however.

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