Customer Reviews

Live Wizardry

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was the swan song, a final farewell for the group that had taken the Celtic Revival sparked by Christy Moore and blew it into an uncompromising Firestorm that swept all before it. The incendiary virtuosity of Johnny and Phil Cunningham, the protean songwriting and mellifluous voice of Andy M. Stewart, the rock solid rhythm fretwork of Martin Haden and Gordon Jones were unparalleled at the time and set the bar so high that only Altan has ever surpassed them. And the case can well be made that there would be no Altan without Silly Wizard. This December, founding member Johnny Cunningham passed away, and thus an incredible part of Scots culture has left us.
You must remember that this band was formed by Cunningham in 1972 when he was 14 and Phil was 12. every significant Scottish musicians in the 80"s and 90's was impacted by Silly Wizard. Most of the really important ones were either briefly associated or absolutely inspred by SW's accomplishments.
As you can tell from the customer reviews, all of the CDs were sterling efforts. This one though has all the bittersweet elements of a fond farewell. Like The Beatles, there had been a feeling that they had covered the waterfront and it was time to move on. A tour was launched and perhaps the best playing of their career was delivered. The humour on stage was more accurately captured on the Green Linnet video, but this is a remarkable document of a band who quit at the peak and left all of us forever wanting more.
If you have nay Scots blood in you at all, you will find yourself full of pride in these remarkable men. If you have an avocation for this music, it simply does not get any better at all. 5 stars is somehow far short of just how incredible this disc is.

"Live Wizardry" is the penultamate presentation of the five members of Silly Wizardry. SW sounds a bit like "clan na'geal" or "Seven Nations" but unique in their own.

From the first song "Queen Of Argyll" a tale of a lady of exceeding beauty and charm, but out of reach, Andy starts a melodious exploration of new and traditional Scotts music. You can see the smoke coming off the violins (being played so fast and hard) in many of the songs on this collection.

"The Parish Of Dunkeld" brings people back to the roots of Religion, reminding people that it's the folks who make the church, not the walls.

"The Valley Of Strathmore" is a ballad of a heartbroken man wishing one last day with his departed love. Eerily romantic, tears of joy can be felt through the lyrics, and the voice of the instruments.

"The Ramblin' Rover" is a lyrical journey across the faces of the people that one could meet in on! e's life. Just as the journey is made, so is the song. This is a rare instance of acapella from Silly Wizard.

"Donald McGillavry" is a swirling mix of Scottish and English. Just as the notes toss on a sea beaten into a froth, so do the lyrics as the group sings about every townsfolks nightmare. "...and maggots wouldn't eat 'im" and you know this is a tough guy! Brush up on your Gaelic, or visit some of the web sites for the translations of the songs.

"Golden, Golden" and "The Broom of the Cowden Knowes" bring us back to the tender side of the group. Some say that the heartbroken man gets his day (and more) back with his love lost in "Valley Of Strathmore"

A complete success from start to finish, this is one album that you can listen to in ANY mood, and it can take you to any other mood before you know it. This is Silly Wizard's finest hour, and to have it be a live album just tops it off. There is a video of this av! ailable, and Silly Wizard knows how to play the audience, t! elling about the group, and cracking jokes in between songs. A must have!

Great CD! Perfect pub music. Ramblin' Rover is one of the best. Their live album even has audience in it when recorded in Boston. A great buy.

Silly Wizard is the final authority on Celtic music. They are adept musicians and Andy Stewart's ballads bring a tear to my glass eye. They are the best at the "stutter step" style of playing (32nd and 64th notes in the middle of the measure). You'd swear "Ramblin Rover" has been around for hundreds of years, and the whole album is just a treat to listen to. Get this one immediately!

If you have heard Silly Wizard before but don't have this CD then let me just say this: I am not normally a big fan of live recordings, but SW just sounds great on this album. I think it because they are essentially a live band. As much as I love their regular studio stuff, you can tell that in front an audience is where they do best.

If you've never heard of SW before it's because they broke up in the late 80's just as they were catching on in America and the major labels were falling over themselves to sign them. That when I first became a fan, too late to see them live myself.

I don't know of any group since that has captured their sound. This is the kind of music you would expect to hear being played in the back of a pub in a small Scottish town. They mix the traditional and some modern instrumentation to play traditional and new music with firm roots in their heritage.

These are working class guys who wrote songs that sounded like the music their Grandma used to sing to them, and at the eve of their fame decided they would rather go back to their families and their day jobs than be famous. They still put out solo CDs now and then, but as a band SW has never played again.

So grab this while you can because there isn't anything else like it and there never will be.

Hands down the best gaelic, celtic, folk, whatever you want to call it band out there. Very down to earth real music. Lots of sad tunes to cry into your beer with, and a several jigs to tap your foot too.

"Live Wizardry" is the best collection of Silly Wizard's music that I know of. All my favorite songs are here, displaying the band's most appealing traits: the intensity of crowd favorites like "Queen of Argyll" and "Donald McGillavry", the humor of "Parish of Dunkeld" and "Ramblin' Rover", the plaintive poignancy of "Blackbird" and "Valley of Strathmore", and the rollicking fun of their instrumental dances. As with many traditional Celtic groups, the work of Silly Wizard is great singer-songwriter material--the tales are well told, the melodies evocative, the harmonies engaging, and the sound is down-to-earth and real. Phil Cunningham's fiery accordion playing is amazing, Andy M. Stewart's folksy, honest voice has a winning charm, and fiddler Johnny Cunningham and guitarists Martin Hadden and Gordon Jones round out band's sound with expert flair. Although this CD was recorded live, the audience was either well-behaved or generally screened out by directional mikes, as their applause and cheers are not intrusive throughout the songs, only cropping up at the beginnings and ends. If you buy only one Silly Wizard album I'd say this is the one to get, though all the rest are certainly enjoyable and worth hearing as well. If you enjoy the music of Silly Wizard, especially their touching ballads, you might also like the work of Relativity (also featuring Phil and Johnny Cunningham) and the laid-back reveries of Nightnoise. Try "Gathering Pace" and "The Parting Tide" respectively.

I was worried that there would be a lot of crowd noise on this one, but my fears were unfounded. There is just applause at the start and finish of some of the songs. A funny observance I made: contrast the polite applause at the beginning of "Ramblin' Rover" to the crowd response at the end of the song. Wanna feel like you are out late at night in a real pub? Get this CD and play it LOUD!!!!! This ain't no whimpy tune collection.

The other reviews here pay justice to a truly beautiful album. There is very little in modern Celtic music to match the beauty and sheer exile's pain of Andy Stewart's vocal on "The Valley of Strathmore." He had recorded this with the band earlier on "So Many Partings" but the earlier recording comes nowhere near the power and poignancy of the work that the group puts into this. In short, this is one of those very special recordings like Tommy Makem singing "Four Green Fields" or Shane Macgowan's "Fairytale of New York" that will stay with you forever. It's that real and that much in touch with the loss and displacement of the past two centuries. Buy a copy, or burn one from a friend. I believe this (sadly) is out of print like so many of Green Linnet's extraordinary catalogue.

Silly Wizard have for more years than I care to remember, been the pre-eminent purveyors of traditional Scottish Folk music. This recording of a live performance is yet another exhibition of the exceptional talent of this group of musicians. If you enjoy celtic folk music,then this CD should definitely be in your collection. -GB