MELLOW CANDLE
''SWADDLING SONGS''
1972
42:43
1 /Heaven Heath
Allison Williams/3:01
2 /Sheep Season
Clodagh Simonds / Allison Williams / David Williams/5:02
3 /Silver Song
Clodagh Simonds/4:26
4 /The Poet and the Witch
Clodagh Simonds/2:52
5 /Messenger Birds
Allison Williams/3:39
6 /Dan the Wing
Clodagh Simonds/2:45
7 /Reverend Sisters
Clodagh Simonds/4:21
8 /Break Your Token
Clodagh Simonds/2:27
9 /Buy or Beware
David Williams/3:05
10 /Vile Excesses
William Murray / David Williams/3:14
11 /Lonely Man
Clodagh Simonds/4:29
12 /Boulders on My Grave
Clodagh Simonds/3:27
Frank Boylan/Bass, Vocals
Clodagh Simonds/Piano, Vocals
Alison Williams/Vocals
David Williams/Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Vocals
William A. Murray/Percussion
REVIEW
by Jon Pruett
Filled with multi-layered harmonies and complex arrangements, this unfortunately underlooked album of beautiful, flowing, and wonderfully recorded British folk-rock (originally released in 1972) has been a favorite of record collectors for years. Luckily, the strength of the music holds up beyond its scarcity. Not merely electric updates of lost traditional numbers, the album works because it establishes a voice and a sound that is truly compelling. The arrangements range from the zigzagging light progressive bent of the opener, "Heaven Heath," to the more storming tempo changes of "Dan the Wing." Strewn across the record is some truly remarkable guitar work, with the blanks filled in with lush violin and piano fills. The high-toned, occasionally strained interplay of Alison Williams and Clodagh Simonds may not always reach the notes as they ought to be reached (this rings especially true on the bombastic "The Poet and the Witch," an otherwise fine song), but their voices have their own peaceful rewards. The vocals see most of their limitations during the more up-tempo numbers -- which is fine, seeing that this record is able to soar on the quieter moments. On "Silver Song" (the one track that was actually released as a single with "Dan the Wing" during Mellow Candle's short tenure at Decca's Deram Records offshoot), the band falls into a mid-paced ethereal haze, within which it finds its strongest points. Gliding guitars and equally haunted vocals wrap around each other in a fog of vaguely mystical lyrics. The crystal clear recording and the lack of reliance on overly fantastical lyrics make Swaddling Songs sound remarkably current. Anyone who is able to track down the CD reissue will be more than pleased with this lost treasure.
BIOGRAPHY
by Eduardo Rivadavia
Although they are anything but a household name today, in their time, Irish folk-rock band Mellow Candle were frequently mentioned in the same breath as more enduring names from the Emerald Isle's late-'60s generation of rock bands, such as Steeleye Span, the Chieftains, Thin Lizzy, Horslips, et al. The origins of Mellow Candle can be traced back to 1963, when precocious young ladies Clodagh Simonds, Alison Bools, and Maria White formed a vocal trio named the Gatecrashers while enrolled at Dublin's Holy Child Convent. After several years of impromptu performances, covering hits of the period inside the school walls, 14-year-olds Simonds and Bools (White had already left) sent a demo to Radio Luxembourg DJ Colin Nichol, who in turn brought it to respected producer Simon Napier-Bell, then manager for the likes of the Yardbirds and John's Children, among others. Napier-Bell was duly impressed and soon arranged for a recording session from which emerged the 1968 single "Feeling High" b/w "Tea with the Sun," released through his own short-lived SNB label imprint and credited to the already renamed Mellow Candle.
The single's poorly rendered approximation of psychedelic girl group sounds failed to chart, however, and Simonds' parents strategically intervened by shipping her off to school in Italy, while Bools began attending art college back in Ireland and singing with local covers group Blue Tint. This paired her with guitarist and future husband David Williams, so that, with the addition of bassist Pat Morris and Simonds' return from Italy, Mellow Candle were relaunched in 1970, making their debut performance in support of the Chieftains. Numerous concerts and festival appearances alongside fellow rising Irish acts such as Horslips, Taste, and Thin Lizzy helped build the band's public profile over the next year, and Simonds even contributed harpsichord and Mellotron to Lizzy's Shades of a Blue Orphanage LP. By the time this was released, Mellow Candle were already hard at work on their own debut album for Deram Records, having replaced the unsuitably straight-laced Morris with former Creatures bassist Frank Boylan and augmented their formation with a drummer for the first time in ex-Kevin Ayers man William Murray. That debut album, Swaddling Songs, was produced by David Hitchcock (Genesis, Caravan, etc.) and released in April 1972 -- a month that also saw Mellow Candle supporting Steeleye Span at Dublin's National Stadium.
But this reputable concert booking unfortunately did not reflect the public reaction to Swaddling Songs, which, for reasons unknown, was generally either ignored or dismissed by critics of the time (the NME famously calling it a "tax loss"), only to subsequently transform into a paradigm of overlooked British folk-rock in the decades that followed. In fact, come the 1990s, its magical musical amalgam of Celtic folk, progressive, goth, psych, and rock, topped with Simonds and Williams' otherworldly vocals (honed to telepathic interaction over years of partnership), was being hailed as a lost masterpiece, and exchanging collectors' hands for hundreds of dollars until long overdue CD reissues began covering some of the demand. All too late to save Mellow Candle, of course, which had initially weathered Swaddling Songs' commercial failure with tours alongside Genesis and Curved Air, then briefly changed their name to Grace Before Space, but ultimately crumbled altogether and went their separate ways toward the end of 1973.
DoWnLoAd
''SWADDLING SONGS''
1972
42:43
1 /Heaven Heath
Allison Williams/3:01
2 /Sheep Season
Clodagh Simonds / Allison Williams / David Williams/5:02
3 /Silver Song
Clodagh Simonds/4:26
4 /The Poet and the Witch
Clodagh Simonds/2:52
5 /Messenger Birds
Allison Williams/3:39
6 /Dan the Wing
Clodagh Simonds/2:45
7 /Reverend Sisters
Clodagh Simonds/4:21
8 /Break Your Token
Clodagh Simonds/2:27
9 /Buy or Beware
David Williams/3:05
10 /Vile Excesses
William Murray / David Williams/3:14
11 /Lonely Man
Clodagh Simonds/4:29
12 /Boulders on My Grave
Clodagh Simonds/3:27
Frank Boylan/Bass, Vocals
Clodagh Simonds/Piano, Vocals
Alison Williams/Vocals
David Williams/Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Vocals
William A. Murray/Percussion
REVIEW
by Jon Pruett
Filled with multi-layered harmonies and complex arrangements, this unfortunately underlooked album of beautiful, flowing, and wonderfully recorded British folk-rock (originally released in 1972) has been a favorite of record collectors for years. Luckily, the strength of the music holds up beyond its scarcity. Not merely electric updates of lost traditional numbers, the album works because it establishes a voice and a sound that is truly compelling. The arrangements range from the zigzagging light progressive bent of the opener, "Heaven Heath," to the more storming tempo changes of "Dan the Wing." Strewn across the record is some truly remarkable guitar work, with the blanks filled in with lush violin and piano fills. The high-toned, occasionally strained interplay of Alison Williams and Clodagh Simonds may not always reach the notes as they ought to be reached (this rings especially true on the bombastic "The Poet and the Witch," an otherwise fine song), but their voices have their own peaceful rewards. The vocals see most of their limitations during the more up-tempo numbers -- which is fine, seeing that this record is able to soar on the quieter moments. On "Silver Song" (the one track that was actually released as a single with "Dan the Wing" during Mellow Candle's short tenure at Decca's Deram Records offshoot), the band falls into a mid-paced ethereal haze, within which it finds its strongest points. Gliding guitars and equally haunted vocals wrap around each other in a fog of vaguely mystical lyrics. The crystal clear recording and the lack of reliance on overly fantastical lyrics make Swaddling Songs sound remarkably current. Anyone who is able to track down the CD reissue will be more than pleased with this lost treasure.
BIOGRAPHY
by Eduardo Rivadavia
Although they are anything but a household name today, in their time, Irish folk-rock band Mellow Candle were frequently mentioned in the same breath as more enduring names from the Emerald Isle's late-'60s generation of rock bands, such as Steeleye Span, the Chieftains, Thin Lizzy, Horslips, et al. The origins of Mellow Candle can be traced back to 1963, when precocious young ladies Clodagh Simonds, Alison Bools, and Maria White formed a vocal trio named the Gatecrashers while enrolled at Dublin's Holy Child Convent. After several years of impromptu performances, covering hits of the period inside the school walls, 14-year-olds Simonds and Bools (White had already left) sent a demo to Radio Luxembourg DJ Colin Nichol, who in turn brought it to respected producer Simon Napier-Bell, then manager for the likes of the Yardbirds and John's Children, among others. Napier-Bell was duly impressed and soon arranged for a recording session from which emerged the 1968 single "Feeling High" b/w "Tea with the Sun," released through his own short-lived SNB label imprint and credited to the already renamed Mellow Candle.
The single's poorly rendered approximation of psychedelic girl group sounds failed to chart, however, and Simonds' parents strategically intervened by shipping her off to school in Italy, while Bools began attending art college back in Ireland and singing with local covers group Blue Tint. This paired her with guitarist and future husband David Williams, so that, with the addition of bassist Pat Morris and Simonds' return from Italy, Mellow Candle were relaunched in 1970, making their debut performance in support of the Chieftains. Numerous concerts and festival appearances alongside fellow rising Irish acts such as Horslips, Taste, and Thin Lizzy helped build the band's public profile over the next year, and Simonds even contributed harpsichord and Mellotron to Lizzy's Shades of a Blue Orphanage LP. By the time this was released, Mellow Candle were already hard at work on their own debut album for Deram Records, having replaced the unsuitably straight-laced Morris with former Creatures bassist Frank Boylan and augmented their formation with a drummer for the first time in ex-Kevin Ayers man William Murray. That debut album, Swaddling Songs, was produced by David Hitchcock (Genesis, Caravan, etc.) and released in April 1972 -- a month that also saw Mellow Candle supporting Steeleye Span at Dublin's National Stadium.
But this reputable concert booking unfortunately did not reflect the public reaction to Swaddling Songs, which, for reasons unknown, was generally either ignored or dismissed by critics of the time (the NME famously calling it a "tax loss"), only to subsequently transform into a paradigm of overlooked British folk-rock in the decades that followed. In fact, come the 1990s, its magical musical amalgam of Celtic folk, progressive, goth, psych, and rock, topped with Simonds and Williams' otherworldly vocals (honed to telepathic interaction over years of partnership), was being hailed as a lost masterpiece, and exchanging collectors' hands for hundreds of dollars until long overdue CD reissues began covering some of the demand. All too late to save Mellow Candle, of course, which had initially weathered Swaddling Songs' commercial failure with tours alongside Genesis and Curved Air, then briefly changed their name to Grace Before Space, but ultimately crumbled altogether and went their separate ways toward the end of 1973.
DoWnLoAd
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