Strawbs - The Complete Strawbs - Live At Chiswick House '2000 / 2023

Tracks list

Tracklist:

1. Further Down The Road (03:30)
2. Grace Darling (06:37)
3. Ringing Down The Years (07:25)
4. Beside The Rio Grande (04:26)
5. Out In The Cold (03:08)
6. Round & Round (05:39)
7. Hero & Heroine (03:47)
8. Witchwood (04:13)
9. A Glimpse Of Heaven (03:35)
10. Josephine For Better Or For Worse (03:52)
11. Oh, How She Changed (03:59)
12. New World (03:51)


 moreFounded in 1964 as a bluegrass-based trio called the Strawberry Hill
Boys by singer/guitarist Dave Cousins, the group originally consisted of
Cousins, guitarist/singer Tony Hooper, and mandolinist Arthur Phillips, who was
replaced in 1968 by Ron Chesterman on bass. That same year, the band -- now
rechristened the Strawbs, and doing repertory well beyond the bounds of
bluegrass music -- briefly became a quartet with the temporary addition of Sandy
Denny, who stayed long enough to record a relative handful of tracks with the
group on the Hallmark label before joining Fairport Convention. (The album would
be issued several times, under the titles All Our Own Work and Sandy & the
Strawbs, among others.) In 1969, the Strawbs were signed to A&M Records, and cut
their first album, the acoustic-textured Strawbs, that same year.

For their second album, Dragonfly, recorded and released the following year, the
group broadened their sound with the presence of a group of session musicians,
including piano/organist Rick Wakeman. Soon after the release of this record,
the Strawbs became a full-fledged band with the addition not only of Wakeman but
also Richard Hudson and John Ford, on drums and bass, respectively. These
changes, coupled with Cousins' increasing dexterity on electric guitar, gave the
Strawbs a much more powerful sound that was showcased on their next album.

The live Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios (1970) sold well, and was
followed the next year by From the Witchwood. In 1971, Wakeman left the Strawbs
in order to join Yes; he was replaced by Blue Weaver (formerly of the Amen
Corner). Grave New World (1972) showed the band entering their strongest period,
with Cousins' songwriting augmented by the new prowess of the composing team of
Hudson and Ford. The record became their best-selling album to date.
Unfortunately, its release also heralded the exit of Tony Hooper. He was
replaced by Dave Lambert, a more aggressive, rock-oriented guitarist, and his
addition brought the group into their peak period. The Strawbs' 1973 album
Bursting at the Seams featured two Top Ten U.K. hits, "Lay Down" and "Part of
the Union," and one album track, "Down by the Sea," racked up substantial
airplay on American FM radio.

As happens with peak periods, the band's fortunes began to decline as the decade
wore on. Blue Weaver left after one more tour, while Hudson and Ford exited to
form Hudson-Ford, also signed to A&M. The Strawbs regrouped in 1974 with Hero
and Heroine, recorded with a new lineup consisting of Cousins, Lambert,
keyboardist John Hawken, bassist Chas Cronk, and drummer Rod Coombes. The new
album was a critical and commercial failure in England but proved popular in
America. Their next two albums, Ghosts (1975) and Nomadness (1976), both did
better in the U.S. than they did in the U.K. None of this was enough to sustain
the group, however, which continued to lose members and also left A&M Records.

Two more albums on the Oyster label were poorly distributed and one album for
Arista, Deadlines (1978), was a commercial failure, while a second record for
the label was never released. The Strawbs called it quits at the end of the
1970s, and Cousins embarked on some solo projects in association with guitarist
Brian Willoughby that attracted the interest of die-hard fans but few others.
That might have been the end of the group's history if it hadn't been for an
invitation to play the 1983 Cambridge Folk Festival. The Strawbs accepted it in
the guise of Cousins, Hooper, Hudson, Ford, Weaver, and Willoughby, and the
response was so favorable that a tour was scheduled, which led to their return
to America in the mid-'80s. The band followed this up with two new studio albums
released in Canada.

In 1993, the Strawbs released their own retrospective concert album, Greatest
Hits Live!, which summed up many of the high points of their history. The group
continued to play throughout the decade and into the following century, issuing
a slew of live efforts and studio albums. The original lineup from the Hero and
Heroine era returned to the studio in 2008 to record The Broken Hearted Bride, a
return-to-form effort that solidified the band's staying power. In 2009, the
group released Dancing to the Devil's Beat, while 2011's Hero & Heroine in
Ascencia found Cousins and his bandmates revisiting the material from 1974's
Hero and Heroine.

After several years of touring in both acoustic and electric lineups, in 2017
the Strawbs released The Ferryman's Curse, their first studio album of original
material in eight years. Celebrating their 50th anniversary, the group toured
America in 2019, then returned with another studio album in 2021's stylistically
eclectic Settlement. South African documentary filmmaker Niel van Deventer, a
longtime fan of the Strawbs, was aware of the popularity of "Grave New World"
and "Bursting at the Seams" in his homeland, especially among those involved in
the anti-apartheid movement. The director approached Dave Cousins about making a
movie about the band's international following and their music's significance to
their South African fans. Cousins agreed to be part of the project, and 2023's
The Magic of It All collected songs he wrote for the film, recorded in Cape
Town, South Africa with a studio band of leading South African musicians. 

Biography by Mark Deming



Strawbs - The Complete Strawbs - Live At Chiswick House.rar - 292.7 MB

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