Keith Christmas - Timeless & Strange
(Sanctuary)
Along with Steffen Basho-Junghans and Harris Newman, Christmas gave us last year's finest acoustic instrumental solo album (the aptly titled, Acoustica), and with his star on the rise again, the time seemed right for him to go through his back catalogue and select some early material to be remastered and reshared with his ever-increasing fanbase. Despite the assistance of backing band, Mighty Baby, Christmas virtually disowns his "horribly recorded" debut, Stimulous (RCA, 1969) (only a contemporary live rendition of "I Know You Can't Lose" and "Metropolis" make it onto the anthology - and the latter is mislabeled as being excavated from his second album!), so the majority of this package is dedicated to that second and third albums, Fable Of The Wings and Pigmy, presented in their entirety minus one song from each. The former is the stronger of the two and is one of the lost gems of British singer/songwriter psychedelia. Graced with a fluid, finger-picking style and a relaxing, lilting voice (I'm often reminded of Roy Harper doing an album of Nick Drake covers), Christmas has that rambling, earthy Harper-esque approach to songwriting that crams a lot of detail into his songs, making each one sound like a self-contained short story.
Fable... features a tight rhythm section, including the melodic, walking basslines of Pat Donaldson and the busy, yet intricate fills of Gerry Conway, all complimented by the omnipresent ivory tickling of Keith Tippett, who could make angels break out their red (dancing) shoes and head for the nearest pin head. Highlights abound, but I'd like to call particular attention to the swelling storm that ends "Waiting For The Wind To Rise," the middle jam on "Lorri," which deserved to be screaming every night from the Fillmore stages back in 1970, and the extended coda to "Hamlin." Those who enjoyed last year's Acoustica will find some of the roots of Christmas' finger-picking skills in the title track, which I'd love to hear arranged for (and played on) sitar. As majestic as anything on the Incredible String Band's 5,000 Spirits, or The Layers of The Onion! Suggestions to Fit & Limo and/or Craig (Lamp of the Universe) Williamson: learn this song immediately for your next album.
Occasionally, an Al Stewart bedsitting vibe wanders through the room; at other times Help Yourself comparisons avail themselves. Some of Christmas' solos also wouldn't be out of place on a CSNY album (check out "The Fawn, complete with the soaring soprano of Shelagh McDonald), and on more than one occasion I found myself reaching for Rod Goodway's J.P. Sunshine album (perhaps fitting that Christmas would spend some time in the Rustic one's Magic Muscle outfit alongside bassist Ade Shaw (Hawkwind, The Bevis Frond), who appears here on several of the Pigmy tracks.
Pigmy opens with the gorgeous, heartmelting, string-driven "Travelling Down," its melody eerily similar to Donovan's "Widow with Shawl" and reveals itself to be a lighter album, with Christmas' vocals sounding clearer and less breathy, as on the song which gives this anthology its title. Moving away from the earthy, bottom-heavy, cotton-mouthed, warm and fuzzy vibe of Fable..., the focus shifts to the lyrics and the stories and Christmas' vocals, which have lost some of their raspy, gruff demeanor. Strings (arranged by Robert Kirby, fresh from Drake's Bryter Layter) also play a more prominent role and the songs are more personal, such as the short, tragic love song, "Poem." But "Song for A Survivor" is clearly the highlight here, with its extended sax-led jam courtesy Ray Warleigh (also a Bryter Layter sessioner). It dips its toe to test the cold, prog-y waters, but successfully cowers back before falling in and succumbing to prog's unhealthy excesses. In sum, the year is young, but this is an early candidate for Reissue of the Year.
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