This review is written by Dai Woosnam, daigress@hotmail.com, 6/04
It is hard to believe that this is the stalwart guitarist
responsible for the driving, forceful sound of the Oysterband. For this
is largely an album of sublimely sensitive solo instrumental guitar
work. It is thoughtful stuff that never bores: at no stage does one
wonder “is this the last piece played backwards?” (And that CAN happen
with some solo instrumental albums!)
And to be fair, Prosser must realise it himself, because he relies on a
variety of tempos and styles to ensure that that old ennui does not set
in.
And so concerned is he to give us variety, that he goes the
extra mile, and throws in a couple of his songs. Alas here, it is a
mile TOO far!
Of ‘River of Steel’, his liner notes say that it “came from a bad
experience in Vienna”. To be charitable, let me not say that it sounds
like it: let me instead wish him a quick return to Vienna, and a GOOD
experience, so he can write a better song.
But this is largely an instrumental album: and judged on THAT basis, a
very respectable one. But one howler in the liner booklet is not so
respectable.
The writer (not Prosser) says the following: “…trying to fathom how the
great English players Davy Graham, John Martyn, Bert Jansch and
Martin Carthy managed to do that on their guitars”.
Now, by my reckoning, he is only 50% right…and THAT is pushing a tiny
bit, since Davy Graham had a Guyanese mother and a dad from the Isle of
Skye: a father, furthermore, who was a Scots Gaelic teacher! So DG was
not exactly your quintessential ENGLISH guitarist.
Ha! Is there any wonder that many Scots wanted their own Parliament?
To buy the album go towww.cantweb.co.uk/music/alan_prosser/
(That is alan UNDERSCORE prosser.)
Dai Woosnam
Grimsby, England
daigress@hotmail.com
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