[rating=9.00]
The Incredible String Band’s evolution is well-documented from its origins fifty years ago on the Edinburgh folk scene with Robin Williamson and Clive Palmer, the joining of Mike Heron for the debut in ’66 then leaving of Palmer for India and a solo career, to the expansion of the successful duo to a quartet with their girlfriends during an incredibly prolific period on Elektra and Island. Their rapid rise to large concert halls and festivals like Woodstock contributed to changes when not only electric added to the swag-bag of worldwide instruments but also multi-media theatre and film. The Incredible String Vest, as John Peel dubbed them, were as quintessentially 60s as they were typical castaways when they called it a day in 1974.
They were the most successful, and visible, pioneers of the genre now known as psych/acid/freak folk, a rich hybrid that still drank from the traditional source while eclectically fashioning a new sound from diverse cultures: not only old and new Americana with stop-overs in blues and gospel, but also Chinese, Japanese and personal discoveries in North Africa, Afghanistan and India. None were as broad in their palette, few as joyful in the exploration.
A new double CD plus DVD by Secret Records features 19 gems from the first five albums that (after the debut) graced UK and US charts, plus a couple of later songs and Clive Palmer taking us back to the dance tunes of earlier times. The CDs mirror the DVD, including instrument tuning, filmed multi-angle with an exclusive pre-gig interview about their songs and history. Recorded at The Lowry in Salford in September 2003 it features Mike Heron (guitar, keyboards), Clive Palmer (guitar, banjo, pipes, percussion), Lawson Dando (guitar, harmonium, thumb piano, kazoo, finger cymbals), and Claire ‘Fluff’ Smith (violin, cello, mandolin, recorder, whistle, percussion) providing an orchestral feel while all share vocals.
No Robin Williamson though, also absent from the recording of Nebulous Nearnesses a month later at Peter Gabriel’s Worldwide Studio. Purists might bemoan this, a valid point of course, though the band always was a Marmite experience anyway: either his spirit is there or it lacks his counterplay depending on personal taste. More subdued, the quartet reverently revisits 1966 to 1974 with some notable high points for what probably remains an unforgettable experience for those there at the time.
The quality recording opens, appropriately, with ‘Everything’s Fine Right Now’ from the 1966 debut, banjo and all, and the classic Wee Tam two years later for ‘Log Cabin Home In The Sky’ and ‘Ducks On A Pond’, one of two Williamson songs performed. A little surprising is ‘Maker Of Islands’ from their last LP Hard Rope & Silken Twine (1974), followed by two Palmer songs (‘Banjo Tune’; ‘Empty Pocket Blues’ from the first album). ‘Painting Box’, the demo single played on American radio that led to the wave of fame there, has a violin lilt added to good effect, while 1970’s ‘Cousin Caterpillar’ (The Big Huge) and ‘This Moment’ (I Looked Up) are atmospheric in their stripped-back delivery.
The second CD continues the trip with the debut’s ‘How Happy I Am’ sung in duo. Four classics follow from the halcyon late ’60s: ‘The Hedgehog’s Song’ adapted to boogie slide guitar; Williamson’s ‘The Water Song’ without Heron but Dando/Fluff duet accompanied by wind-effect percussion for a unique, too-short variant that the song-writer probably would love; ‘Chinese White’ blending vocals, violin and banjo; and strumming, delicious ‘Douglas Traherne Harding’ from Big Huge, a nod to a Dylan title but based on English mystics. Accompanied by pipes for almost 8 minutes, it is one of the monumental versions captured live, highlighting Heron’s song-writing depth. It reminds this reviewer of another Secret Records issue, Amazing Blondel’s archive box-set: sheer beauty.
Palmer and Fluff also return to history with two evocative pipe-and-fiddle Northumbrian airs: ‘Cuckold Army’ and ‘Because He Was A Bonnie Lad’. Percussion-led ‘World’s They Rise And Fall’ reprises Liquid Acrobat (1971), the band’s first almost entirely electric album. The set closes with the timeless ‘A Very Circular Song’ (The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter 1968), harpsichord with strong harmonies over 12 minutes turning the clock back. The encore is a very sprightly ‘Black Jack Davy’ from I Looked Up (1970) based on folk archive sources. These new interpretations may provoke regret that there’s nothing from COB’s two classic LPs, which wouldn’t be out of place here. As the oddly normal looking Mike Heron says, it’s a unique opportunity—because the albums were often twice a year and so always new material—to perform a best-of selection distilling the ISB’s essence.
One might even sense an air of finality but that may be just interpretation of the fascinating stage-chat or the rare occasion with Clive Palmer after so many decades away. ISB did go on to tour America and perform what was said to be their last concert at the Moseley Folk Festival in 2006, but Heron and Palmer appeared again at London’s Barbican three years later with Richard Thompson, Dr. Strangely Strange, The Trembling Bells and others.
Then, during the writing of this review, came the sad news of Clive Palmer’s passing at the age of 71. He released two solo albums in 2011 so the concert wasn’t a swansong, but his choice in the sixties not to rejoin the band certainly led to a difficult life thereafter (as he alludes to on the DVD and movingly reminds that many had died since then). His fame was among aficionados in the sense of an enduring high respect, as with Mick Softley and Wizz Jones (who first posted the official news about him). Clive Palmer’s contribution here particularly brings the ISB full-circle, while his faithfulness to history before and during the group’s existence will continue as a fine testament to the musical and social traditions of these isles.
