FULL BLOOM, ACOUSTIC STRAWBS LIVE

This live album finds the early Acoustic Strawbs trio of Dave Cousins, Dave Lambert and Brian Willoughby (Chas Cronk would replace Willoughby after this tour) flashing their wares at an audio shop in Canada that was captured with excellent, if slightly amateurish, sound quality (a slightly lopsided sound mix on occasion being the culprit) that was taken from the soundboard. What the band performs best are the songs taken from their all acoustic album "Baroque And Roll" like "Ghosts" and "Tears And Pavan". These songs showcase the trio's amazing ability to supplement all the melodies, counter melodies and electric guitar leads, naturally, found on the studio versions. The trio also does an amazing acoustic version of "Autumn" from the "Hero And Heroine" album, with Lambert and Willoughby doing a clinic on guitar interplay on that song's magnificent opening musical section. Cousins and Lambert cover the alternating lead and harmony vocals flawlessly and do the same on all of the songs.

Where the little band struggles is on a couple of the more heavily orchestrated songs like "Down By The Sea" and the title track to "Hero And Heroine", where no amount of loud manic strumming or deft playing can make up for the missing orchestra and mellotron/keyboard parts found on the original studio versions. Still, it's fascinating to hear them try.

For playing and singing their hearts out so marvelously, 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 seems quite deserving for these hard working veteran prog rockers caught on a great night with exceptional sound quality.