Sunday 18 February 2018

Strawbs - Dancing To The Devil's Beat (2009)


The 20th album from this English band.

Strawbs was a quintet on this album with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, banjo, autoharp, hammond, piano, orchestrations and vocals.
They had help from guest musicians who provided cornet, fiddle, harmonica and a children choir.

The band has had it's ups and downs since their Copenhagen recording sessions with Sandy Denny and their debut album in 1969. I have always found this band interesting and relevant, though.

The band has returned to their roots on this album. The son of their first keyboards player is even present on this album. Yes, step forward Oliver Wakeman.

The band has also returned to their folk rock roots here. There are some pretty mainstream rock here too. But most of the album is folk rock with Dave Cousins vocals and guitars the central element here. There are even some fiddles here. There are also a good suite here, lasting eight minutes. 

The cover artwork is loony though and I am not sure what the meaning of the artwork is. British off the scale humour I guess. Even I do not get this one.

The songs are mostly pastoral with a couple of uptempo rockers thrown in too. The title track being one of them. The quality of the songs on this forty minutes long album is really good and I am very much enjoying this album. It is another interesting, good album from this band.

3 points



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