2008 digitally remastered two-for featuring a pair of albums from the former Incredible String Band member on one CD. First released in 1979, a Glint at the Kindling was the final album by the Merry Band which consisted of Robin Williamson, Sylvia Woods, Chris Caswell and Jerry McMillan. Five Bardic Mysteries was originally released by Robin on his own label in 1985. These spoken-word pieces demonstrate Robin's remarkable storytelling abilities. In fact, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant used 'The Dialogue of the Two Sages' as part of their 'No Quarter' Show in the mid-'90s. Beat Goes On.
Product details
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer
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No
Product Dimensions
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5.63 x 5 x 0.55 inches; 3.95 Ounces
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If you like Celtic myths spun by a living bard accompanied by music, buy this disc---it's a gem. I have been searching for tales like this for a very long time. I used to have a whole series of Robin's works on cassettes, but they went bad over time. It's great to have them on a more permanent media. His Five Bardic Mysteries are my favorite---it's as evocative as the best of Alan Stivell's work, and it's in a language I can understand
I find this artist both talented and quite exceptional. Like Dylan, he is a true poet as well as a performer. I really wish he had a much better recording and remastering team. Mr. Williamson employs some, at times, very high pitched flutes and pipes, and his voice level ranges between quite loud and extremely soft. On this disc, and even more so on Songs of Love and Parting, I have to listen with one hand on the volume control. Makes me wish I had a player that would control volume the way some TV sets do regarding commercials.
I especially love the spoken poem, "Five Denials on Merlin's Grave". The way Robin reads it stirs the soul. Of the songs I have a hard time picking just one. Mad Girl, Poacher's Song and Woodcutters song all compete for top billing, but that doesn't mean the others don't measure up.
Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2012
I have the LP and most of one side contains one of the best poem-songs ever written. The 13+ minute Five Denials On Merlin's Grave is simply magnificent. Check out some of the lyrics below.
myself, a brat who vaguely gazed on the knee high nineteen forties and the waist high nineteen fifties and couldn't figure numbers worth a damn was always a chancer and given three lines to add I'd put the middle row down as the answer ... but let us sing the skill of the master builders long ago for it was no peasantry clodding after scrawny cows who raised the hollow hills and henge stones but calm and cunning wizards worked these wonders ... still sings the salmon louder in the wild deer's lung above and below all weir the Green Man makes his play and in a schoolboy's hands that cupped that water...
Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2005
When I first encountered "Glint at the kindling" I was only familiar with Robin's work in the Incredible String Band. This was different stuff - but it soon captured me as much as the best the ISB produced - it even neared the dizzying heights of "The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter" ! Later I bought more Williamson records, but this one, along with "Songs of love & parting" and his more recent "Mirrorman's Sequences" is the most captivating - amazingly well-crafted and filled with all one could wish for, both textual and musical. Earlier records like "American Stonehenge" sound like he was trying to find a new voice, but in "Glint" he definitely found one - all his later work bears many traces of this record.
On cd, the original "Glint" is teamed up with five bardic mysteries, which are all great (although you should check out the Gems of Celtic Story series for even better & more complete stories). Funnily enough these 5 bardic stories were presented on one cd with "Songs of love & parting" earlier.
On the original lp, Robin plays with the Merry Band - of which he has said he's never worked with better musicians - and it shows ! The songs I love best are "The road the gypsies go", "The woodcutter's song" with its great instrumental coda, "By weary well" and of course the epic "Five denials on Merlin's grave".
All the added stories are great, and if you're a Williamson fan I'm sure you'll love them. It should be noted that "The dialogue of the two sages" presented here is a less complete version than the one appearing on "Gems of Celtic Story 2".
I was very happy with the release of the album on cd - and also very pleased with the additions, although, in some sense, it has somehow destroyed the intimacy and the sense of completeness of the original. But I can still play the lp, can't I ?
There is no finer maker of celtic/folk/narrative music than the great Robin Williamson. Prolific, well versed on many instruments, and posessor of a worn and rich voice like an old uncle who's been away on a lifetime of adventures. He is a wandering bard and mischief maker in the truest sense, and this is yet another of his masterpieces, with a sampling of both short songs and historical celtic myths. Buy at LEAST one of Mr. Williamson's CD's for yourself and your closest friends.
this album comes from his time with the Merry Band, he made three or four great albums with them after leaving the Incredible String Band, this album includes his epic poem The Five Denials on Merlins Grave, But the real joy for me was the additional tracks, the five bardic mysteries with Robin on harp, relating celtic stories and poetry... the spoils of Annwyn, is incredible, I saw him recite this at the Hope Centre in Bristol a few years ago, and the magic of that piece has stayed with me.
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