ACOUSTIC STRAWBS: BAROQUE & ROLL

Baroque & Roll is an album credited to "Acoustic Strawbs" and was released at a time when Strawbs had not released anything new for quite some years. As such it could be seen as a welcome sign of life and pointing to a brighter future. But it was probably not what long time fans of the band had been waiting for. The material here was not new, but is rather acoustic re-makes of classic Strawbs songs. Some of these re-makes are better than others and some feel rather unnecessary. However, it is overall a pleasant listen.

The core of the band here is Dave Cousins, Dave Lambert, and Brian Willoughby, but there is also a string section on song songs (and I'm sure I can hear some non-acoustic instruments). The string section makes some parts into what one might perhaps call "chamber Folk".

The most progressive pieces here include striped down renditions of Ghosts and The Riven/Down By The Sea. Evergreen is a beautiful song. Nothing here is essential or better than the originals, but it functions as a nice complement. My advice is to make sure to get the original albums from which these songs were taken before investing in Baroque & Roll. But once you've gotten that far, the present album (along with the similar Painted Sky) is a worthy addition as well.

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