JUSTIN HAYWARD
''LIVE AT THE BUCKHEAD THEATRE, ATLANTA: SPIRITS... LIVE''
AUGUST 19 2014
77:11
1 Tuesday Afternoon 4:25
2 It's Up To You - Lovely To See You 6:12
3 In Your Blue Eyes 4:28
4 The Western Sky 7:16
5 Land of Make Believe 5:05
6 New Horizons 5:08
7 In the Beginning 3:54
8 one Day Someday 5:09
9 The Eastern Sun 4:25
10 It's Cold Outside of Your Heart 4:18
11 Your Wildest Dreams 4:52
12 Forever Autumn 4:27
13 Question 6:36
14 Nights In White Satin 5:41
15 I Know You're Out There Somewhere 5:15
REVIEW
By Timothy Monger
Tender-voiced Moody Blues frontman Justin Hayward trims down the orchestrations for this 2013 acoustic set recorded live at the Buckhead Theatre in Atlanta. Peppered with classic Moodies hits and select solo offerings, Hayward puts the focus on a career's worth of quality songwriting, scaling back some of the elaborate productions that have come to represent his band's output. However, billing this as an acoustic album is slightly misleading. While Hayward eschews the use of his iconic red Gibson ES-335 electric in favor of acoustic six- and 12-string guitars, he's backed here by a trio of multi-instrumentalists who embellish most of this well-known material with synth parts, electric guitar, and tambourine to the point where "Your Wildest Dreams" and "I Know You're Out There Somewhere" come across more as drummerless renditions rather than acoustic adaptations. Songs like "New Horizons" and "In the Beginning" (the 2013 solo cut, not the intro to 1969's On the Threshold of a Dream) fare a bit better, but there is still a feeling of only going halfway with the stripped-down vibe. It's true that many of his songs are forever tied to their heavily romantic arrangements, but Hayward is an ace songwriter with a large and diverse back catalog, and it seems like this could have been a great opportunity to really pare away the layers and offer fans the kind of organic experience they've never heard before. His voice sounds as warm and lovely as ever and his guitar playing has always been underrated, but this release, while enjoyable, sounds like he merely borrowed the Moodies' backup keyboard players for a series of weekend solo gigs.
ABOUT
By Official Site
It’s easy enough to focus on the intimate readings here of familiar Moody Blues favorites, but Spirits … Live (due August 19, 2014 via Eagle Rock) also draws interesting, previously unheard contours around Justin Hayward’s newer songs — with “One Day Someday” as a standout example.
Most involving of all is how confidentially open Hayward himself sounds in these wide open spaces. After all, throughout his career with the Moody Blues, he’s consistently involved himself in broadly sketched productions — be that the muscular orchestral sweep of “Nights in White Satin,” the synthesized sheen of “Your Wildest Dreams” or, actually, his original take on “One Day Someday,” from last year’s Spirits of the Western Sky.
Joined by only fellow guitarist Mike Dawes and keyboardist/vocalists Alan Hewitt and Julie Ragins at the Atlanta’s Buckhead Theatre a year ago on August 17, 2013, Hayward strips away the studio version’s more mechanical flourishes, revealing something deeper and far more lastingly connective. Hayward also tackles “Question,” “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere” and “Tuesday Afternoon,” as well as a number of other tracks from Spirits, his first solo album since The View from the Hill in 1996.
Deep within it all, there clearly always lurked something that sounded like Spirits … Live. That is to say, just a guy and his guitar. We knew that, intuitively. Still, to hear it is another thing entirely. Hayward has never sounded closer to the material, or closer to us. It’s a thrilling revelation.
BIOGRAPHY
by Bruce Eder
Justin Hayward (b. Swindon, October 14, 1946; full name David Justin Hayward) got his first guitar at age nine. In 1965, he joined pre-Beatles English rocker Marty Wilde as a member of his backing band, the Wilde Cats. By the end of 1965, Hayward had four songs that he felt ready to record on his own, which led him to former skiffle king-turned-producer Lonnie Donegan. It was Donegan's intention to record the songs himself, but Hayward insisted upon recording them, and Donegan duly agreed to serve as producer. Released by Pye Records on the last day of 1965, Hayward's solo recording debut "London Is Behind Me" vanished from sight without a trace. The follow-up, "I Can't Face the World Without You," was released by Parlophone on August 26, 1966, to similar results. It was at this same time that Hayward answered Eric Burdon's ad for a lead guitarist. But Burdon had already filled the spot, and offered the Moody Blues -- who were in the market for a new guitarist/singer to replace Denny Laine, who had quit earlier that year -- their pick of responses filling mail sacks in his office. Hayward's letter was picked out by Ray Thomas, and he was called by Mike Pinder. A meeting between the two, and a subsequent meeting with the band, brought Hayward into the Moody Blues lineup permanently.
For the first six months, the group continued doing the R&B-based repertory that they'd been known for prior to Hayward's arrival. Gradually, however, they began to work new songs into their stage act and their recording schedule, which took a big jump when the group was picked by Decca/London Records to participate in a stereo-demonstration record mixing rock and orchestral sounds. The resulting album, Days of Future Passed (1967), revived the band's fortunes, not least through the success of a Justin Hayward song called "Nights in White Satin." Although Hayward proved he could also rock out, he quickly became established as the romantic/mystic of the band, known not only for "Nights in White Satin" but songs such as "New Horizons" and "Your Wildest Dreams."
Hayward's career as a solo artist began in 1977 with the release of Songwriter, which displayed a somewhat leaner and more lively, acoustically textured sound than his work with the Moody Blues. He followed this up in 1980 with Night Flight, a major departure from his work with the group, with very much of a belated disco sound. During the next several years, Hayward devoted much of his attention to the revived Moody Blues, who had a full touring and recording schedule in front of them. His Moving Mountains (1985) was strongly reminiscent of his earlier work with the band from the start of the 1970s. Since then, when he is not working with the band and writing new material (his "Your Wildest Dreams" reached number nine in America in 1986), Hayward seems to devote his time to reviving older Moody Blues songs in solo settings, as on the 1994 release Classic Blue in which he sings Moody Blues songs with orchestral accompaniment. A guitarist of great skill and a unique sound, Hayward remained one of the few stars of the 1960s who retained a devoted international following into the 1990s, though most critics -- as with the Moody Blues -- had ceased to consider him a serious contemporary artist.
OFFICIAL SITE
''LIVE AT THE BUCKHEAD THEATRE, ATLANTA: SPIRITS... LIVE''
AUGUST 19 2014
77:11
1 Tuesday Afternoon 4:25
2 It's Up To You - Lovely To See You 6:12
3 In Your Blue Eyes 4:28
4 The Western Sky 7:16
5 Land of Make Believe 5:05
6 New Horizons 5:08
7 In the Beginning 3:54
8 one Day Someday 5:09
9 The Eastern Sun 4:25
10 It's Cold Outside of Your Heart 4:18
11 Your Wildest Dreams 4:52
12 Forever Autumn 4:27
13 Question 6:36
14 Nights In White Satin 5:41
15 I Know You're Out There Somewhere 5:15
REVIEW
By Timothy Monger
Tender-voiced Moody Blues frontman Justin Hayward trims down the orchestrations for this 2013 acoustic set recorded live at the Buckhead Theatre in Atlanta. Peppered with classic Moodies hits and select solo offerings, Hayward puts the focus on a career's worth of quality songwriting, scaling back some of the elaborate productions that have come to represent his band's output. However, billing this as an acoustic album is slightly misleading. While Hayward eschews the use of his iconic red Gibson ES-335 electric in favor of acoustic six- and 12-string guitars, he's backed here by a trio of multi-instrumentalists who embellish most of this well-known material with synth parts, electric guitar, and tambourine to the point where "Your Wildest Dreams" and "I Know You're Out There Somewhere" come across more as drummerless renditions rather than acoustic adaptations. Songs like "New Horizons" and "In the Beginning" (the 2013 solo cut, not the intro to 1969's On the Threshold of a Dream) fare a bit better, but there is still a feeling of only going halfway with the stripped-down vibe. It's true that many of his songs are forever tied to their heavily romantic arrangements, but Hayward is an ace songwriter with a large and diverse back catalog, and it seems like this could have been a great opportunity to really pare away the layers and offer fans the kind of organic experience they've never heard before. His voice sounds as warm and lovely as ever and his guitar playing has always been underrated, but this release, while enjoyable, sounds like he merely borrowed the Moodies' backup keyboard players for a series of weekend solo gigs.
ABOUT
By Official Site
It’s easy enough to focus on the intimate readings here of familiar Moody Blues favorites, but Spirits … Live (due August 19, 2014 via Eagle Rock) also draws interesting, previously unheard contours around Justin Hayward’s newer songs — with “One Day Someday” as a standout example.
Most involving of all is how confidentially open Hayward himself sounds in these wide open spaces. After all, throughout his career with the Moody Blues, he’s consistently involved himself in broadly sketched productions — be that the muscular orchestral sweep of “Nights in White Satin,” the synthesized sheen of “Your Wildest Dreams” or, actually, his original take on “One Day Someday,” from last year’s Spirits of the Western Sky.
Joined by only fellow guitarist Mike Dawes and keyboardist/vocalists Alan Hewitt and Julie Ragins at the Atlanta’s Buckhead Theatre a year ago on August 17, 2013, Hayward strips away the studio version’s more mechanical flourishes, revealing something deeper and far more lastingly connective. Hayward also tackles “Question,” “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere” and “Tuesday Afternoon,” as well as a number of other tracks from Spirits, his first solo album since The View from the Hill in 1996.
Deep within it all, there clearly always lurked something that sounded like Spirits … Live. That is to say, just a guy and his guitar. We knew that, intuitively. Still, to hear it is another thing entirely. Hayward has never sounded closer to the material, or closer to us. It’s a thrilling revelation.
BIOGRAPHY
by Bruce Eder
Justin Hayward (b. Swindon, October 14, 1946; full name David Justin Hayward) got his first guitar at age nine. In 1965, he joined pre-Beatles English rocker Marty Wilde as a member of his backing band, the Wilde Cats. By the end of 1965, Hayward had four songs that he felt ready to record on his own, which led him to former skiffle king-turned-producer Lonnie Donegan. It was Donegan's intention to record the songs himself, but Hayward insisted upon recording them, and Donegan duly agreed to serve as producer. Released by Pye Records on the last day of 1965, Hayward's solo recording debut "London Is Behind Me" vanished from sight without a trace. The follow-up, "I Can't Face the World Without You," was released by Parlophone on August 26, 1966, to similar results. It was at this same time that Hayward answered Eric Burdon's ad for a lead guitarist. But Burdon had already filled the spot, and offered the Moody Blues -- who were in the market for a new guitarist/singer to replace Denny Laine, who had quit earlier that year -- their pick of responses filling mail sacks in his office. Hayward's letter was picked out by Ray Thomas, and he was called by Mike Pinder. A meeting between the two, and a subsequent meeting with the band, brought Hayward into the Moody Blues lineup permanently.
For the first six months, the group continued doing the R&B-based repertory that they'd been known for prior to Hayward's arrival. Gradually, however, they began to work new songs into their stage act and their recording schedule, which took a big jump when the group was picked by Decca/London Records to participate in a stereo-demonstration record mixing rock and orchestral sounds. The resulting album, Days of Future Passed (1967), revived the band's fortunes, not least through the success of a Justin Hayward song called "Nights in White Satin." Although Hayward proved he could also rock out, he quickly became established as the romantic/mystic of the band, known not only for "Nights in White Satin" but songs such as "New Horizons" and "Your Wildest Dreams."
Hayward's career as a solo artist began in 1977 with the release of Songwriter, which displayed a somewhat leaner and more lively, acoustically textured sound than his work with the Moody Blues. He followed this up in 1980 with Night Flight, a major departure from his work with the group, with very much of a belated disco sound. During the next several years, Hayward devoted much of his attention to the revived Moody Blues, who had a full touring and recording schedule in front of them. His Moving Mountains (1985) was strongly reminiscent of his earlier work with the band from the start of the 1970s. Since then, when he is not working with the band and writing new material (his "Your Wildest Dreams" reached number nine in America in 1986), Hayward seems to devote his time to reviving older Moody Blues songs in solo settings, as on the 1994 release Classic Blue in which he sings Moody Blues songs with orchestral accompaniment. A guitarist of great skill and a unique sound, Hayward remained one of the few stars of the 1960s who retained a devoted international following into the 1990s, though most critics -- as with the Moody Blues -- had ceased to consider him a serious contemporary artist.
OFFICIAL SITE
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