#541: Steve and Sandy

2nite, reviews of albums by Steve Tibbetts & Sandy Denny. Strange bedfellows? Well, I'm still looking 4 Steve Tibbetts' ultimate meltdown-guitar album. & Sandy Denny's name keeps popping up in this Al Stewart biography I'm trying 2 read (Neville Judd's AL STEWART: THE TRUE-LIFE ADVENTURES OF A FOLK-ROCK TROUBADOUR, pretty solid on the details). So....

Steve Tibbetts -- EXPLODED VIEW: Name Everything, Another Year, A Clear Day and No Memories, Your Cat, Forget, Drawing Down the Moon, The X Festival, Metal Summer, Assembly Field.
Fairport Convention -- Chelsea Morning, Fotheringay, Mr. Lacey, Book Song.
Sandy Denny -- SANDY: It'll Take a Long Time, Sweet Rosemary, For Nobody to Hear, Tomorrow is a Long Time, The Quiet Joys of Brotherhood, Listen Listen, The Lady, Bushes and Briars, It Suits Me Well, The Music Weaver.

EXPLODED VIEW (1986), like Steve's THE FALL OF US ALL which I reviewed last week, was also sposta B LOUD. & it is. There's lotsa screamy feedback & a lot less of the Indian/Oriental sound that was on FALL. But as a gtr-meltdown album it still doesn't beat 1980's YR. & it's still a little short of tunes....
"Name Everything" opens with some nice loud, washy electric gtr & Steve's buddy Marc Anderson's propulsive tribal drumming. There's lotsa nice screechy feedback thruout, & LOTSA heavy drums & more feedback near the end. THIS is more like it!
"Another Year" sounds very much like an outtake from YR -- but with more screeching electric & some nice nimble tabla & percussion from Anderson. A pretty acoustic theme comes in later. "A Clear Day" adds wordless vocals & a lite acoustic gtr -- dreamy, washy orchestral sounds with occasional heavy tones. Then Anderson's loud percs kick-in again. Later, a straight delicate acoustic with some added echo takes over -- it ends unXpectedly: YR crossed with FALL.
"Your Cat" has a silly New Age-ish title, but there's some nice loud electric & feedback, & loud, pounding drumming. "Forget" has nice feedback & more pounding, rhythmic drums. At less than 2 mins, it's much 2 short.
"Drawing Down the Moon" adds what SOUNDS like keyboards, tho none R mentioned in the credits. & there's a definite spacey Indian/Oriental flavor.... "The X Festival" adds more wordless voices, with (according 2 the credits) either Claudia Schmidt or Jan Reimer briefly pulling-off something similar to Clare Torrey's vocal on Pink Floyd's "Great Gig in the Sky." That goes directly in2 a nice heavy gtr riff that short-circuits way 2 soon....
"Metal Summer" features more pounding drumming. There's lots more percs & occasionally some washy electric. Anderson gets a solo composing credit on "Assembly Field" -- he has co-writer credits on 2/3rds of these pieces. Wordless chanting is followed by some kalimba & thumb-piano & heavy percs, then more chanting ... & DOGS BARKING! IN RHYTHM! (They also Rn't credited.)
Sorta a silly way 2 end, but another 1 I'll keep 4 the heavy gtr. But Steve needs more tunes....

Ah, Fairport. Judy Dyble sings lead on Joni Mitchell's very busy "Chelsea Morning," which is sorta built around the late Martin Lamble's bouncy drumming. Dyble was definitely no slouch as a singer -- the only other place I've heard her was on the Xcellent demo version of King Crimson's "I Talk to the Wind," which you can find on KC's YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE best-of, if you can find any of those....
...But then in comes the haunted voice of Sandy Denny on "Fotheringay," & it's like being serenaded by an old friend. (BTW, the best writing I've ever read on Sandy Denny & the impact of her music is at Adrian Denning's music-review website, where -- in a review of Sandy's BEST OF -- Adrian practically writes her a love letter ... & it's WONDERFUL.)
"Mr. Lacey" is a silly blues with some nice gtr from Richard Thompson -- & the lyrics R hilarious. "Book Song" has some very nice harmonies -- it's almost Mamas-and-Papas-ish. All these R from Fairport's MEET ON THE LEDGE best-of.

SANDY (1972) is 1 of the late singer's 4 solo albums -- I'd previously heard only 1 song. Denny wrote all but 2 of the songs, & her husband Trevor Lucas produced. There R spots of real brilliance in it, but I'm thinking I mighta bn better off with a best-of.
"It'll Take a Long Time" opens, & it's kinda a dirge, but it gains in strength. There's some nice gtr from Richard Thompson & good keybs from Rabbit Bundrick. "Sweet Rosemary" has some nice violin from Fairporter Dave Swarbrick, but at 2-1/2 mins it's way 2 short. "For Nobody to Hear" is a big production with added horns arranged by Allen Toussaint. "Tomorrow is a Long Time" is a countryish arrangement of an old Bob Dylan song.
These songs R all OK, but they're rather sombre & serious. I wish they were lighter or bouncier or hadda bigger impact. Sandy's voice is still beautiful, but....
Then things get good. Sandy's acapella version of Richard Farina's "The Quiet Joys of Brotherhood" is just gorgeous -- they shoulda opened the album with it. Denny sings the 1st verse unaccompanied, then overdubs herself 4 some neat clashing harmonies. Swarbrick fiddles alone at the end. Hushed, stark & not-too-pretty, it's pretty freaking brilliant. It's the best thing here so far & will stop you in your tracks. & then there's Farina's amazing, ironic lyrics....
"Listen Listen" is gorgeous -- but I already knew that. It's bn a fave of mine since about 1984, when I 1st heard it on Fairport's CHRONICLES best-of. "Listen" makes a great 1-2 punch with "Brotherhood." & "Listen" itself has such great singing & such a perfect production that it'll have you in tears. I guarantee....
"The Lady" adds heavy strings. "Bushes and Briars" is countryish but nice. "It Suits Me Well" is a nice gypsy ballad with more good Bundrick keybs. "The Music Weaver" -- supposedly a portrait of Richard Thompson -- is a very pretty closer. Thompson doesn't play on it, & there's some painful distance Xpressed in the lyrics.
There R some really good songs here -- especially in the 2nd 1/2. But they R mostly not-very-happy songs....