American Stonehenge [Import, Original recording remastered]

Robin Williamson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 5, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Original recording remastered
• Label: GOTT DISCS
• ASIN: B000GRUNX6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #237,400 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Port London Early

2. Pacheco

3. Keepsake

4. Zoo Blues

5. These Islands Green

6. The Man In the Van

7. Sands and the Glass

8. Her Scattered Gold

9. When Evening Shadows Fall

10. Rab's Last Woolen Testament

11. Song of Mabon

12. Song of Mabon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hauntingly Brilliant, October 17, 2006

By 

David Perry "David M Perry, Huntington Beach" (the road to the next big thing) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Stonehenge (Audio CD)

So I'm working in a record store in 1978. I am into folk music, progressive rock, punk rock, classic rock, jazz and classical, and electronic avant garde. (I still own four thousand lp's, that live in a rock maple and walnut custom made shrine--together with the David Perry stereo--but that's another story)

This little beauty comes into the store and it looks good. I don't know how people discover new music today but it used to be about browsing the 12" covers and reading the copy on the back. Having the privelige of listening to any album I desired, I sliced this one open and it got my attention. Eventually, it broke my heart. Some years later I would sit with a bottle in my hand crying over this album.

Robin Williamson was part of a brilliant accoustic duo called the incredible string band back in the sixties. He returns in the late seventies with the Merry Band, kind of an accoustic Celtic Folk orchestra. They are diverse, fantastic musicians and the combination is still quite fresh.

But it's the lyrics that got me. Here is a little sample:

"Some of us died, some got dry, here am I still singing on the stage-
I never turned my cheek but I turned the page, and watched the way the wind blows"

Brilliant, deep and quite often laugh out loud funny--the Merry Band is a real treat. Robin is a Scientologist, but he'll get over that someday.

persevere

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars American Stonehenge : even the title reveals ambiguity, October 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: American Stonehenge (Audio CD)

In the build-up to his masterpiece "Glint at the Kindling" Robin produced two albums: "Journey's Edge" and "American Stonehenge". Both albums show he was still looking for the right formula, even though he had already collected the right musicians for the job.

"American Stonehenge", though more in tune with the mentioned "Glint", is less satisfying than "Journey's Edge", mostly, I think, because of a lack of consistency. Some songs are quite good, especially the instrumental pieces "Port London Early" and "Her Scattered Gold" and the Celtic-flavoured "These islands green" and "When evening shadows". Also, the whisky-praising and good-humoured song "Rab's woollen testament" is a definite highlight on this album. The other songs are shaky. Somehow, Robin doesn't sound right when trying to incorporate elements of other than British or Irish nature in his songs (and I think that's true to this very day).

This album presents us the work of a man who doesn't know if he wants to be a Scottish American or an American Scotsman. In the end, as we all know, his Britishness took over completely and I think we can be very satisfied with that result. Considering this, "American Stonehenge" can be seen as a sort of diary of a man who was already on his way home.

Hans Wigman