Apart from the jazz artists featured on the site I am also a fan of other types of music

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Outside of the jazz sphere my favourite group has to be the long running giants of folk/rock Oysterband.

Apart from the jazz artists featured on the site I am also a fan of other types of music-rock,folk,world etc.

Outside of the jazz sphere my favourite group has to be the long running giants of folk/rock Oysterband. They are not only a dynamic live act but have also made a series of excellent albums, maintaining an extraordinarily high level of quality control throughout. 

I have seen the Oysters more times than any other group or artist and my review of their show in Hereford in Autumn 2007 was picked up by the band themselves. They subsequently asked me to write some articles for the band website during their 30th Anniversary Year of 2008. I felt suitably honoured.

Ultimately these failed to appear as proper liaison between myself and the band was rendered impossible due to their heavy schedule touring the UK, Europe and Canada, playing the summer festival circuit throughout the UK and Europe and recording the album ?The Oxford Girl And Other Stories? (reviewed on this site at http://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/oysterband-the-oxford-girl-and-other-stories/).

However the band have agreed that I can publish my writings elsewhere and with the end of February deadline for Early Bird tickets for this year’s Big Session Festival now approaching this seems like a good time to look back at last year’s festival. The feature was written last summer so references to upcoming events may have dated but if you were at last year’s festival or if you are just an Oysterband fan I hope you’ll enjoy re-living the experience. I’ve covered the whole festival in considerable detail (rather more than the band were bargaining for I think) and one or too criticisms were considered not entirely appropriate for the official group site. For better or worse here they are, warts and all. 

I’ve also decided to publish a review of the Oyster’s show in the unusual setting of Clun, Shropshire at the beginning of May 2008. What a marvellous night that was:
http://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/oysterband-clun-green-man-festival-the-memorial-hall-shropshire-may-2008/

There is still a bit more in the can, but I’ll save that for another time.

Ian