BLONDEL

So other than poking some fun at them once and a while, Amazing Blondel doesn’t really factor into my musical consciousness all that much. They aren’t really my ‘cup of tea’. That said, this is a band that has an interesting history, and for those who are real acousto-geeks, some pretty interesting instruments that aren’t exactly common sights across the progressive landscape. I’ve listed some so you can Google them to see how weird they look: crumhorn, glockenspiel, theorbe, ocarina, cittern, tabor, violone. Have fun.

If you’ve no knowledge of Blondel’s music at all - think a little bit Gryphon, sort of Blackmore’s Night, maybe in the vein of Incredible String Band, along the lines of the Chieftains, bordering on Malicorne, not unlike Richard Thompson, ….. so you get the idea. This is ‘old-fashioned’ music, played with largely acoustic instruments, ethereal lyrical topics from ages long ago, etc., but not really exactly like anyone else.

So, roughly in the company of the aforementioned bands, but also in many ways quite unlike them. What little I’ve read of this band and their fans leads me to believe that even the most subtle distinctions are quite significant to them. Blondel is more vocal than Gryphon, more inclined toward woodwinds (and their custom-made 7-string guitar-lutes) than Night’s twelve-string guitars and other stringed accompaniment, less political than Richard Thompson, decidedly British and so distinct from the Chieftains, and probably a just a tad bit more socially adept than the Incredible String Band. Like Gryphon, they’ve been around since the 60’s, disappeared for a while in the 80’s, and seem to be managing to make a quiet living touring and releasing the occasional compilation and even new material today.

It seems the trio started out in a band called Methuselah, and might have gone down a road more like Jethro Tull were it not for their developing an interest in quieter, more ethnic acoustic songs played in a chamber-like live format (in this case ethnic being more like Renaissance-era British traditional music played by three guys who looked like they were acid freaks from Haight-Asbury). But this is not classical music, and there are accommodations for the modern, including said 7-stringed guitar-lutes with electric pickups built-in, guest musicians like Paul Rodgers and Steve Winwood to give them street-cred, and the occasional off-color bawdy joke between songs. If these guys were of Jewish ancestry and the scene was being played out on the north shore of Lake Michigan in Chicago, we’d probably call it klezmer.

The preceding histography was compiled solely for my personal benefit – thanks for playing along.

Blondel (the Purple Album) was the first recorded by the band as a duo, a situation created by the departure of founding member and chief composer John David Gladwin, apparently due to a disagreement over the extent of touring the label expected from the band (he seems to have returned in the old-timers version of the band that is loosely formed today). Gladwin’s departure meant that composing fell to lutist (is that a word?) Eddie Baird, apparently since Terry Wincott, the other band member, was too busy playing seven or eight different instruments on the album.

The result was an album not quite like the previous ones, or at least what little snippets of those previous ones I have heard. The Purple Album is a bit less ‘minstrally’, more like simply mellow folk music with some precision technical execution. Instead of conjuring up visions of Robin Hood prancing around in tights, you’re more likely to envision a calm meadow full of posies and a babbling brook on the horizon.

“Leaving of the Country Lover” sets the meadow-with-brook tone perfectly, with mild harmonizing vocals that would have done Crosby, Stills & Nash proud. The music is almost completely acoustic, and the string arrangements compliment well without overpowering the song.

“Young Man’s Fancy” almost sounds like an early 60’s pop song in the vein of the Moody Blues, while “Easy Come, Easy Go” adds some very intricate finger work on the two 7- string guitar-lutes played by Baird and Wincott (did I mention Paul Rodgers adds his voice to this album – it’s noticeable here). “Sailing” has a long strumming lead-in and eventually gets to the lyrics, an embarrassingly personal love song to someone Baird must have been pretty fond of.

With “Lesson One” the Moodys sound is actually pretty plain, although Baird’s voice here sounds very much like Arlo Guthrie. “Festival” isn’t very festive, more like a guy with an acoustic guitar playing a soft, sad one to his fair maiden under the grandstands.

“Weaver’s Market” tosses in some female backing vocals, and is more string-intensive than the rest of the album. There’s some background voices rambling as well, I guess simulating market sounds.

The ending song, “Depression”, is very close to a plain old sad John Denver song, heavy on the guitar strings but very little other accompaniment.

Like I said, this kind of music isn’t really my thing, but there was a time years ago when I was a bit more adventurous in randomly selecting unknown music off my local record store shelves just to try it out, and that’s how I came across this one. In some ways it sounds like that is what Amazing Blondel did way back in the late 60’s, only they were actually creating the music, not just listening to it, and it turned somehow into a life-long calling. More power to them.

I’m hesitant to call this progressive music since it’s more like a throwback sound, but prog folk seems to fit well enough for now. Knowing what the band sounds like now, I probably wouldn’t buy this album today, but it’s well enough done and seems to have found an audience, so who am I to judge? A good but not essential album, so three stars it is.

peace