I didn’t realize until really recently that only 1,000 copies of that record actually made it out, because there were manufacturing issues and stuff with that record. I actually have an original Topic pressing.
Then of course…I heard about Bright Phoebus, probably in 2005, I would say. There was something that felt timeless about it, it was sort of biblical in that way. That music speaks to me, their particular voices, there was something about them that I really felt compelling. I really liked the Watersons…you gotta be in it totally…you gotta have a dedication …you’ve got to wanna be there at that place. Taylor: I got quite into British folk music in the early 2000s through a friend of mine named Michael Talbot who, he was younger than me, but he just had an encyclopedic knowledge, particularly of British folk music. Below, his thoughts on the haunting longevity of Bright Phoebus. AD spoke to Taylor at his hotel room outside of Portland, Oregon, where he was prepping for a set at Pickathon. It’s one of Taylor’s favorites, and it’s not hard to hear a similar play between the elements of light and shadow in the songs of his forthcoming album, Hallelujah Anyhow, due out September 22 via Merge Records. One of the album’s most vocal admirers is M.C. Recently, it was finally reissued by Domino Records, with great great taken to enhance its fidelity and expand its context (the new edition features demos and longform notes by scholar Pete Paphides). Though the Lal and Mike both passed away (in 19, respectively) the album continued to grow in esteem. It gained high profile fans like Stephen Malkmus, Billy Bragg, Arcade Fire, and Jarvis Cocker and Richard Hawley. Due to a manufacturing error, only 1,000 copies ever found their way into the hands of folk fans, many of whom were confused by the band’s peculiar mix of avant-garde, country, folk, and psychedelia, and bewildered by the disillusioned and wounded lyrical sensibility.īut dedicated listeners kept Bright Phoebus alive, passing the album along around as a bootleg. Mike and Lal assembled a massive cast to record the album, including sister Norma Waterson, Ashley Hutchings, much of the lineup of Steeleye Span, Martin Carthy, Richard Thompson and Dave Mattacks of Fairport Convention, and more. The work of two siblings, it followed the dissolution of their family band the Watersons. Ask the most dedicated followers of British folk rock about the most sought after lost classic of the canon, and you’ll likely hear 1972’s Bright Phoebus: The Songs of Mike and Lal Waterson cited as a holy grail.
0 kommentar(er)
