WAKEMAN AND COUSINS LIVE 1988

This is a nice little live recording feature Dave Cousins and Rick Wakeman in an intimate live setting. The short concert was recorded in Exeter in 1988 and released on CD in 2004 as the very first entry in the "From The Witchwood Media Archive" series. The performance is wholly acoustic and features only Dave on acoustic guitar and lead vocals and Rick on grand piano. As such, the songs are stripped down to their bare bones. The two first songs of the disc feature Dave alone before Rick is introduced for the third number. The part of the show featuring Rick draws heavily on the From The Witchwood album, the only original Strawbs studio album recorded while Wakeman was a full time member of the band. These songs include A Glimpse Of Heaven, Witchwood, The Hangman And The Papist, and The Shepherd's Song. A further couple of songs appearing here originally appeared on the classic 1970 live album entitled Just A Collection Of Antiques And Curios on which Rick got to express himself more freely on his keyboards than on any Strawbs studio album. These songs are Song Of A Sad Little Girl and Martin Luther King's Dream (the latter being taken from a different recording in Belgium in 1988). Ways And Means originally appeared on Dave Cousins first solo album on which Wakeman appeared as a guest.

Both men are in fine form here and this is a fine performance. But it is inevitably somewhat understated and there is no sign of anything progressive as such. There are no instrumental excesses whatsoever and everything is kept as simple as possible. Still, this is a good disc that will please both Strawbs fans and fans of Rick's. I know I enjoy it!