THE WATERBOYS
''AN APPOINTMENT WITH MR. YEATS''
OCTOBER 4 2011
56:35
1 /The Hosting of the Shee
Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/4:29
2 /Song of Wandering Aengus
Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/5:26
3 /News for the Delphic Oracle
Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/4:30
4 /A Full Moon in March
Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/2:08
5 /Sweet Dancer
Mike Scott / Freddie Stevenson / William Butler Yeats/3:26
6 /White Birds
Mike Scott / Freddie Stevenson / William Butler Yeats/5:07
7 /The Lake Isle of Innisfree
Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/2:23
8 /Mad as the Mist and Snow
Mike Scott / Steve Wickham / William Butler Yeats/4:06
9 /Before the World Was Made
Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/1:46
10 /September 1913
Mike Scott / Steve Wickham / William Butler Yeats/7:20
11 /An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/2:34
12 /Politics
Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/3:50
13 /Let the Earth Bear Witness
Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/3:37
14 /The Faery's Last Song
Katie Kim / Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/5:53
Sarah Allen /Flute
Joe Chester /Choir/Chorus, Guitar (Electric), Harmonium
James Hallawell /Keyboards, Organ (Hammond), Piano
Katie Kim /Choir/Chorus, Vocals
Blaise Margail /Trombone
Ralph Salmins /Drums, Tambourine
Mike Scott /Arranger, Bells, Bouzouki, Cabasa, Cymbals, Drums, Drums (Snare), Effects, Flute, Guitar, Guitar (12 String Acoustic), Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Hand Drums, Keyboards, Loops, Mellotron, Organ, Piano, Piano (Electric), Programming, Soloist, Treatments, Vocals, Voices
Kate St. John /Cor Anglais, Oboe, Saxophone
Freddie Stevenson /Vocals
Steve Wickham /Fiddle
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
The idea that the poetry of Ireland's William Butler Yeats could be set to rock music and captured adequately (let alone eloquently) by Mike Scott and his Waterboys sounds pretentious at the least. Yet, they proved it possible with "Stolen Child" on Fisherman's Blues, then with "Love and Death" off Dream Harder. Yeats and Scott share not only iconic status among their followers, they are also regarded as iconoclasts. The former was born a Catholic, became an atheist, and eventually found spirituality in nature and the occult. He was a celebrated poet and playwright but became a hard-willed, even ruthless politician in his defense of Irish freedom and unity. The latter is a controversial rocker and producer who has aspired to be a mystic, a social and political raconteur, a poet, and a traditional and postmodern balladeer. Also like Yeats, Scott's art has been adventurous: he's taken chances that have not always netted him critical -- or commercial -- success. An Appointment with Mr. Yeats contains 14 tunes adapted from the Irish poet's works that are wedded to musical compositions by Scott (with fiddler Steve Wickham and Catalonian trombonist Blaise Margail helping on the charts). These last two are members of a ten piece Waterboys that include its members keyboardist James Hallawell, multi-instrumentalist Kate St. John, bassist/co-producer Marc Arciero, flutist Sarah Allen and vocalist Katie Kim (who steals the show on the simple and sparse "Sweet Dancer," one of the set's finest moments.) The opener, "The Hosting of the Shee," begins with Celtic reggae but becomes a Celtic rocker with swooping strings and layered guitars. On "News for the Delphic Oracle," cabaret music gets transformed into Celtic cinematic stomp. There are hints of Scott's last proper album, The Book of Lightning, evidenced by "September 1913" with soulful jazz piano by Hallawell, and "Politics" with its horn charts that could have been lifted from Dexys Midnight Runners' debut album, Searching for the Young Soul Rebels. The all-too-brief "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death," with its organs and Rhodes piano, get underscored by a military snare drum and Scott's voice haunting in the verses. The only misstep is that "Let the Earth Bear Witness," with its hymnodic reverence, should have closed the set instead of the ethereal "Faery's Last Dance," but that's a minor quibble. Scott and his band have pulled off a gloriously wide-ranging celebration in An Appointment with Mr. Yeats; it is the Waterboys' strongest effort since Room to Roam.
BIOGRAPHY
by Jason Ankeny
Led by the literate singer/songwriter Mike Scott, the group's sole constant member, the mercurial Waterboys formed in London in 1981. Born December 14, 1958, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Scott first became involved in music as the creator of the fanzine Jungleland and later played in a series of local punk outfits. After college, where he studied English and philosophy, Scott and his band, Another Pretty Face, moved to London; following the group's breakup, he formed the Waterboys, so named after a line in the Lou Reed song "The Kids" but wholly appropriate given Scott's recurring lyrical fascination with sea imagery.
A newspaper advertisement calling for musicians led to a response from multi-instrumentalist Anthony Thistlethwaite; along with drummer Kevin Wilkinson, the Waterboys issued their self-titled debut in 1983. Keyboardist Karl Wallinger and trumpeter Roddy Lorimer joined for the 1984 follow-up, A Pagan Place, which expanded the group's rich, dramatic sound while further exploring Scott's interest in spirituality. With 1985's This Is the Sea, the Waterboys reached an early peak; a majestic, ambitious record, it earned the group a significant hit with the single "The Whole of the Moon."
However, after the album's release, Wallinger departed to form World Party, which prompted Scott and Thistlethwaite to relocate to Ireland and begin with a clean slate. When the Waterboys returned in 1988 with the acclaimed Fisherman's Blues, they were joined by traditional Irish players like fiddler Steve Wickham, drummer Dave Ruffy, keyboardist Guy Chambers, and bassist Marco Weissman, resulting in a stripped-down, folky sound that was continued on 1990's Room to Roam.
In 1991, Scott moved to New York without Thistlethwaite or any other bandmembers; the release of 1993's Dream Harder, cut with session musicians, marked a return to an electric, more rock-oriented sound. Soon Scott moved back to Scotland, where he began a lengthy stay at a spiritual commune; there he recorded the folk-tinged Bring 'Em All In under his own name, apparently putting the Waterboys to rest for good.
On July 17, 1999, drummer Kevin Wilkinson committed suicide in his countryside home in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, just prior to jetting off on an American tour with Howard Jones. Wilkinson, who had also worked with Squeeze, China Crisis, Bonnie Raitt, and the Proclaimers, was a member of the Waterboys since their 1983 self-titled effort.
Good fortune was in the wings, for Mike Scott resurrected the Waterboys name in 2000. Rock in the Weary Land marked the band's first release in seven years. Thistlethwaite and Wickham would return to the group, and tours across the world would prove successful. Fisherman's Blues, Pt. 2, an album featuring previously unavailable material from the Fisherman's Blues sessions, appeared in summer 2002. Scott returned to the studio for 2003's Universal Hall, followed by Book of Lightning in 2007.
After a couple of years of touring and time off, Scott assembled and released a compilation of unreleased songs from the Waterboys This Is the Sea sessions entitled In a Special Place in 2011, and also published a book entitled, Kiss the Wind: A Waterboy's Adventures in Music. He and bassist Scott Arciero also assembled a new version of the Waterboys -- Wickham (fiddle), Katie Kim (vocals), James Hallawell (keyboards), Kate St John (sax, oboe), Blaise Margail (trombone), Ralph Salmins (drums), Sarah Allen (flute), and Joe Chester (guitar) -- who began performing together in late 2010 and early 2011. In March they entered a studio to commence recording a new album. An Appointment with Mr. Yeats, a collection of new songs whose lyrics were taken from the poems of William Butler Yeats. The sessions were completed in June. The album was released in Europe in the early fall on Proper, and in the United States in early 2012.
''AN APPOINTMENT WITH MR. YEATS''
OCTOBER 4 2011
56:35
1 /The Hosting of the Shee
Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/4:29
2 /Song of Wandering Aengus
Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/5:26
3 /News for the Delphic Oracle
Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/4:30
4 /A Full Moon in March
Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/2:08
5 /Sweet Dancer
Mike Scott / Freddie Stevenson / William Butler Yeats/3:26
6 /White Birds
Mike Scott / Freddie Stevenson / William Butler Yeats/5:07
7 /The Lake Isle of Innisfree
Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/2:23
8 /Mad as the Mist and Snow
Mike Scott / Steve Wickham / William Butler Yeats/4:06
9 /Before the World Was Made
Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/1:46
10 /September 1913
Mike Scott / Steve Wickham / William Butler Yeats/7:20
11 /An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/2:34
12 /Politics
Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/3:50
13 /Let the Earth Bear Witness
Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/3:37
14 /The Faery's Last Song
Katie Kim / Mike Scott / William Butler Yeats/5:53
Sarah Allen /Flute
Joe Chester /Choir/Chorus, Guitar (Electric), Harmonium
James Hallawell /Keyboards, Organ (Hammond), Piano
Katie Kim /Choir/Chorus, Vocals
Blaise Margail /Trombone
Ralph Salmins /Drums, Tambourine
Mike Scott /Arranger, Bells, Bouzouki, Cabasa, Cymbals, Drums, Drums (Snare), Effects, Flute, Guitar, Guitar (12 String Acoustic), Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Hand Drums, Keyboards, Loops, Mellotron, Organ, Piano, Piano (Electric), Programming, Soloist, Treatments, Vocals, Voices
Kate St. John /Cor Anglais, Oboe, Saxophone
Freddie Stevenson /Vocals
Steve Wickham /Fiddle
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
The idea that the poetry of Ireland's William Butler Yeats could be set to rock music and captured adequately (let alone eloquently) by Mike Scott and his Waterboys sounds pretentious at the least. Yet, they proved it possible with "Stolen Child" on Fisherman's Blues, then with "Love and Death" off Dream Harder. Yeats and Scott share not only iconic status among their followers, they are also regarded as iconoclasts. The former was born a Catholic, became an atheist, and eventually found spirituality in nature and the occult. He was a celebrated poet and playwright but became a hard-willed, even ruthless politician in his defense of Irish freedom and unity. The latter is a controversial rocker and producer who has aspired to be a mystic, a social and political raconteur, a poet, and a traditional and postmodern balladeer. Also like Yeats, Scott's art has been adventurous: he's taken chances that have not always netted him critical -- or commercial -- success. An Appointment with Mr. Yeats contains 14 tunes adapted from the Irish poet's works that are wedded to musical compositions by Scott (with fiddler Steve Wickham and Catalonian trombonist Blaise Margail helping on the charts). These last two are members of a ten piece Waterboys that include its members keyboardist James Hallawell, multi-instrumentalist Kate St. John, bassist/co-producer Marc Arciero, flutist Sarah Allen and vocalist Katie Kim (who steals the show on the simple and sparse "Sweet Dancer," one of the set's finest moments.) The opener, "The Hosting of the Shee," begins with Celtic reggae but becomes a Celtic rocker with swooping strings and layered guitars. On "News for the Delphic Oracle," cabaret music gets transformed into Celtic cinematic stomp. There are hints of Scott's last proper album, The Book of Lightning, evidenced by "September 1913" with soulful jazz piano by Hallawell, and "Politics" with its horn charts that could have been lifted from Dexys Midnight Runners' debut album, Searching for the Young Soul Rebels. The all-too-brief "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death," with its organs and Rhodes piano, get underscored by a military snare drum and Scott's voice haunting in the verses. The only misstep is that "Let the Earth Bear Witness," with its hymnodic reverence, should have closed the set instead of the ethereal "Faery's Last Dance," but that's a minor quibble. Scott and his band have pulled off a gloriously wide-ranging celebration in An Appointment with Mr. Yeats; it is the Waterboys' strongest effort since Room to Roam.
BIOGRAPHY
by Jason Ankeny
Led by the literate singer/songwriter Mike Scott, the group's sole constant member, the mercurial Waterboys formed in London in 1981. Born December 14, 1958, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Scott first became involved in music as the creator of the fanzine Jungleland and later played in a series of local punk outfits. After college, where he studied English and philosophy, Scott and his band, Another Pretty Face, moved to London; following the group's breakup, he formed the Waterboys, so named after a line in the Lou Reed song "The Kids" but wholly appropriate given Scott's recurring lyrical fascination with sea imagery.
A newspaper advertisement calling for musicians led to a response from multi-instrumentalist Anthony Thistlethwaite; along with drummer Kevin Wilkinson, the Waterboys issued their self-titled debut in 1983. Keyboardist Karl Wallinger and trumpeter Roddy Lorimer joined for the 1984 follow-up, A Pagan Place, which expanded the group's rich, dramatic sound while further exploring Scott's interest in spirituality. With 1985's This Is the Sea, the Waterboys reached an early peak; a majestic, ambitious record, it earned the group a significant hit with the single "The Whole of the Moon."
However, after the album's release, Wallinger departed to form World Party, which prompted Scott and Thistlethwaite to relocate to Ireland and begin with a clean slate. When the Waterboys returned in 1988 with the acclaimed Fisherman's Blues, they were joined by traditional Irish players like fiddler Steve Wickham, drummer Dave Ruffy, keyboardist Guy Chambers, and bassist Marco Weissman, resulting in a stripped-down, folky sound that was continued on 1990's Room to Roam.
In 1991, Scott moved to New York without Thistlethwaite or any other bandmembers; the release of 1993's Dream Harder, cut with session musicians, marked a return to an electric, more rock-oriented sound. Soon Scott moved back to Scotland, where he began a lengthy stay at a spiritual commune; there he recorded the folk-tinged Bring 'Em All In under his own name, apparently putting the Waterboys to rest for good.
On July 17, 1999, drummer Kevin Wilkinson committed suicide in his countryside home in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, just prior to jetting off on an American tour with Howard Jones. Wilkinson, who had also worked with Squeeze, China Crisis, Bonnie Raitt, and the Proclaimers, was a member of the Waterboys since their 1983 self-titled effort.
Good fortune was in the wings, for Mike Scott resurrected the Waterboys name in 2000. Rock in the Weary Land marked the band's first release in seven years. Thistlethwaite and Wickham would return to the group, and tours across the world would prove successful. Fisherman's Blues, Pt. 2, an album featuring previously unavailable material from the Fisherman's Blues sessions, appeared in summer 2002. Scott returned to the studio for 2003's Universal Hall, followed by Book of Lightning in 2007.
After a couple of years of touring and time off, Scott assembled and released a compilation of unreleased songs from the Waterboys This Is the Sea sessions entitled In a Special Place in 2011, and also published a book entitled, Kiss the Wind: A Waterboy's Adventures in Music. He and bassist Scott Arciero also assembled a new version of the Waterboys -- Wickham (fiddle), Katie Kim (vocals), James Hallawell (keyboards), Kate St John (sax, oboe), Blaise Margail (trombone), Ralph Salmins (drums), Sarah Allen (flute), and Joe Chester (guitar) -- who began performing together in late 2010 and early 2011. In March they entered a studio to commence recording a new album. An Appointment with Mr. Yeats, a collection of new songs whose lyrics were taken from the poems of William Butler Yeats. The sessions were completed in June. The album was released in Europe in the early fall on Proper, and in the United States in early 2012.
No comments :
Post a Comment