FIDDLING MEANLY

It's great that Woolly is back. His spirit and good humour have been too long missed in music in general and in Barclay James Harvest in particular. And since his return he has shown a remarkable ability to produce good songs and good albums (both 'One drop in a dry world' and 'Grim' are quite good!!). But unfortunately not all is good in his return: his singing live has turned out for the worse, I'm afraid. It already showed in 'Revival! where '' Harbour' was sung very false (really horrible actually) and it shows again in this album Fiddling meanly. Listen for instance to 'Early morning', to 'After the day' or to 'Has to be a reason', nice songs but sung very badly. I'm really sorry to say that but it is simply the truth.

But this album was never to be taken too seriously. Woolly intended to release a live album just as the music had sounded during the concert, so no overdubbing, no corrections or whatever. Therefore this is a very honest album by a man and a band that show the world that they are back in business again. And that they enjoy it immensely is also obvious: there is a lot of fun inbetween the tracks and the musical playing is good, especially by guitarist Steve Broomhead. His solos on 'Deceivers all' and 'Poor wages' (first live recording of that BJH song ever, with extended guitar coda!) are great. There is another reason why this album is quite special: one of the songs, actually one of the first songs BJH ever recorded, is played "For Mel", BJH's drummer who passed away January 2004. It gave me the chills and it is another proof of Woolly's very nice personality.

All in all, it is not a very good album. It should be part of BJH afficionados but can be discarded by others. You'd better check out Woolly's other albums.