Record reviews: Steeleye Span, "Winter"
Apr. 7th, 2005 08:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacI don't know if anybody else is still listening to Steeleye Span, the English electric-folk band, but I am. That's the thing about me: I'm loyal. I even stuck with them and kept buying their albums through the Black Years of 1997-2001, when beloved lead singer Maddy Prior had left the band (shudder). But she's back now, and while the Steeleye of today isn't quite the same as the band that originally won my heart in the 70s, or the band of the sizzling Silver Age of the early 90s, they're still recognizable, once more pretty good, and getting better all the time.
The Black Years ended in a complete meltdown (at one point the band consisted of nothing but fiddler Peter Knight and a lone website) but, like the man who was turned into a newt, Steeleye got better and has made three albums since then, all enjoyable and each superior to the last. The first, Present, was the result of a readers' survey to determine the all-time favorite Steeleye songs. Steeleye re-emerged from chaos when a reunion band got together to remake the winners, and then they kept on going. They Called Her Babylon was all new material, and played well enough, but except for a long ballad called "Heir of Linne" it wasn't too exciting. What I just ran across, and immediately snapped up (directly from their label), is an album released last fall titled Winter.
It's mostly Christmas carols, but it's Steeleye and thus far removed from the wonderful acoustic carol albums that Prior has made with the Carnival Band. Remembering those, it sounds kind of weird to drop this disc in and start hearing Prior singing "The First Nowell" against a rock beat, but the refrain harmony singing is also good, and you get used to the style: you'd better, because near the end of the album there are lurking for you a heavy punk-rock "Good King Wenceslas" (a bit much for me) and a light pop-swing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" driven elegantly by bassist Rick Kemp (yowza! I liked this one). The second track, "Down in Yon Forest," is not a carol but a folk song included for its Christian and Grail imagery. The triple-time rhythm really moves beautifully, especially in Knight's fiddle interludes. It's a new Steeleye classic, and we're off and running.
"Wenceslas" aside, Winter is a fairly gentle and restrained album with a lot of different approaches to the material. "Chanticleer" and "Today in Bethlehem" are lively carols with clever choppy arrangements that actually sound a little bit like electric versions of the Carnival Band. "See Amid the Winter's Snow" is a carol with restrained, tasteful instrumentals and verses interrupted by Big Loud choruses. "Sing We the Virgin Mary" is even softer, to the point of using brush drums. And of course there has to be one rich group-acappella number, "Bright Morning Star." Best and most restrained of all are two songs sung by Prior with only one band member accompanying her in each. The famous-in-Britain, little-known-in-the-US carol "In the Bleak Midwinter" has Knight multiple-tracked on, I think, two violins and a viola. "Blow Your Trumpet Gabriel" is an Annunciation hymn interestingly accompanied by a medium-paced tattoo from drummer Liam Genockey.
There's one instrumental piece: the title track, a contemplative, somber work written by Knight in the Windham Hill-ish style of his solo albums.
Prior does almost all the lead singing, and anyone who knows her work will need no more recommendation than that. The only exception is new (this is his second album with the group) guitarist Ken Nicol, who performs two seasonal songs he wrote himself. He has a higher, reedier vocal sound than the lusty relaxed tones of his predecessor Bob Johnson, but he's wiser in his choice of material than Johnson was in his last years, and the slight strain in Nicol's voice should appeal to anyone who likes Neil Young. He's also a less warbly and more plectral guitarist than Johnson, partial to broken chords in a ringing tone.
I enjoyed this album more than anything else Steeleye has done these nine years, since Time, the last Silver Age album. In fact, right now I think it's even better than that. It goes on my shelf of fun Yuletide music, next to the Roches' immortal We Three Kings.
The Black Years ended in a complete meltdown (at one point the band consisted of nothing but fiddler Peter Knight and a lone website) but, like the man who was turned into a newt, Steeleye got better and has made three albums since then, all enjoyable and each superior to the last. The first, Present, was the result of a readers' survey to determine the all-time favorite Steeleye songs. Steeleye re-emerged from chaos when a reunion band got together to remake the winners, and then they kept on going. They Called Her Babylon was all new material, and played well enough, but except for a long ballad called "Heir of Linne" it wasn't too exciting. What I just ran across, and immediately snapped up (directly from their label), is an album released last fall titled Winter.
It's mostly Christmas carols, but it's Steeleye and thus far removed from the wonderful acoustic carol albums that Prior has made with the Carnival Band. Remembering those, it sounds kind of weird to drop this disc in and start hearing Prior singing "The First Nowell" against a rock beat, but the refrain harmony singing is also good, and you get used to the style: you'd better, because near the end of the album there are lurking for you a heavy punk-rock "Good King Wenceslas" (a bit much for me) and a light pop-swing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" driven elegantly by bassist Rick Kemp (yowza! I liked this one). The second track, "Down in Yon Forest," is not a carol but a folk song included for its Christian and Grail imagery. The triple-time rhythm really moves beautifully, especially in Knight's fiddle interludes. It's a new Steeleye classic, and we're off and running.
"Wenceslas" aside, Winter is a fairly gentle and restrained album with a lot of different approaches to the material. "Chanticleer" and "Today in Bethlehem" are lively carols with clever choppy arrangements that actually sound a little bit like electric versions of the Carnival Band. "See Amid the Winter's Snow" is a carol with restrained, tasteful instrumentals and verses interrupted by Big Loud choruses. "Sing We the Virgin Mary" is even softer, to the point of using brush drums. And of course there has to be one rich group-acappella number, "Bright Morning Star." Best and most restrained of all are two songs sung by Prior with only one band member accompanying her in each. The famous-in-Britain, little-known-in-the-US carol "In the Bleak Midwinter" has Knight multiple-tracked on, I think, two violins and a viola. "Blow Your Trumpet Gabriel" is an Annunciation hymn interestingly accompanied by a medium-paced tattoo from drummer Liam Genockey.
There's one instrumental piece: the title track, a contemplative, somber work written by Knight in the Windham Hill-ish style of his solo albums.
Prior does almost all the lead singing, and anyone who knows her work will need no more recommendation than that. The only exception is new (this is his second album with the group) guitarist Ken Nicol, who performs two seasonal songs he wrote himself. He has a higher, reedier vocal sound than the lusty relaxed tones of his predecessor Bob Johnson, but he's wiser in his choice of material than Johnson was in his last years, and the slight strain in Nicol's voice should appeal to anyone who likes Neil Young. He's also a less warbly and more plectral guitarist than Johnson, partial to broken chords in a ringing tone.
I enjoyed this album more than anything else Steeleye has done these nine years, since Time, the last Silver Age album. In fact, right now I think it's even better than that. It goes on my shelf of fun Yuletide music, next to the Roches' immortal We Three Kings.
