Weekend Beatnick
V.A. : Ghosts from the basement (UK,re.2010)****°
Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Village Thing it is time to show an overview of its artists. This release delivers more. From the 20-song collection 4 tracks from the vaults were not released before, and 8 others did not appear on any UK releases before. The choice of all songs, including the unknown songs or versions is splendid and there’s a beautiful warm atmosphere which might reveal something of the common creativity the Bristol scene shared. The fundaments are songwriters with a guitar, but there’s more in it, a sort of alternative near acid folk flavour to it more often, with songs ranging from blues (Dave Evans) and country flavours (Dave Peabody) to individual character in voice and songs (with a strong individuality in these songs within the song writing range) and fine guitar playing, and occasional acoustic percussion (like the tabla from the Magic Carpet member for Chris Tompson). Surprising for me were also the charming song of Tucker Zimmerman and the warm voice of Derroll Adams. More acid folkish are the for instance the contributions of The Sun Also Rises and Hunt & Turner.
A highly recommended compilation, of which hopefully will surprise some listeners. Not many of the albums are easy to find, even though rereleased at times (Chris Thompson, Steve Tilston and perhaps Wizz Jones are amongst my favourite reissues ; Hunt & Turner was only rereleased in Korea, and some of the original albums haven’t been rereleased as far as I know).
To complete the 40 year celebration, a concert will be held on September 25th at Cecil Sharp House in London with the invitation of old Village Thing heroes, like Wizz Jones (with Ian A.Anderson), Steve Tilston, Tucker Zimmerman (playing in the UK for the first time since 1972), Ian A.Anderson solo, Dave Evans, Ian Hunt, Maggie Holland, Keith Christmas and Keith Warmington. Supporting new acts will be Nancy Wallace, Jason Steel, The Owl Service, The Straw Band, Pamela Wyn Shannon and some authors who wrote books about the Bristol Folk scene (Rob Young, Jeannette Leach, Mark Jones, Will Hodgkinson, Richard Morton Jack, Colin Irwin.
