CULPEPER'S ORCHARD

A friend of mine asked me name, in my opinion, five best albums of all time. In order, at that. Well, "In the court of the crimson king" got the No.1-spot and Culpeper's Orchard came in as No.2. Alongside the Crimson debut this album ranks among my absolute favorite albums of all time.

I bought it in a recordstore with the basic selection of albums, ranging from the usual pop to the usual metal, but in the far corner there was a shelf with hard to get reissues with the likes of Leaf Hound, Kahvas Jute, Dr. strangely Strange and so on. And then there was Culpeper. The cover struck me immediately, of course. Such a magnificent piece of art. This purchase took place way before internet, so there wasn't any chance of me really finding out anything about the band, apart from the fact that they seemed to be danish and maybe with an english speaking singer. Anyway... I bought the album and I have never looked back.

The music is an interesting mix of hard rock, folk an Tull-ish prog, I'd say. The music is hard rock in a way thah Tull was at the time but retaining a personality of it's own. There are also the scent of late 60's folky rock-approach of, say, Grateful Dead in "Hey, you people".

From the opening "Banjocul" to the magnificent, omnipotent, powerful "Mountain musit Pt.2" the album never lets up. I find it to be the perfect mix between prog, hard rock and folk. Culpeper never sounded this good or this inspired again. The musucianship is great and played with a really rough edge, which I like. The atmosphere is english with danish topping and that is really great. Danish prog seems to me almost as good as the british, which I always prefer.

Amazing album and really one of the jewels in the crown if prog. There you have it.