PAINTED SKY

Painted Sky is a live-in-the-studio recording featuring an all-acoustic set of (mostly) classic Strawbs material. These re-makes are stripped down to their essentials in terms of instrumentation, and even the band itself is reduced to the core trio of Dave Cousins, Dave Lambert, and Chas Cronk. As such, the basic ingredients are simply acoustic guitars and vocals. The odd banjo is also present, but no keyboards or drums.

With the exception of two songs from Deja Fou (the most recent Strawbs studio release at the time of this recording) the selections are taken from the band's "golden era" during the first half of the 70's. Oh, How She Changed is the oldest tune included, going all the way back to the 60's and the band's self-titled debut. One highlight of the disc is the 14 minute, four part The Antique Suite, originally recorded live in 1970 and included on the classic Just A Collection Of Antiques And Curios album.

Listening to this album is actually a very pleasant experience and the new arrangements of these old tunes makes it a worthy addition to a comprehensive Strawbs collection (like my own). However, even if surprisingly good taken for what it is, it is by no means essential and the average Prog fan will probably not need this.

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