Witchwood Records have made much of Strawbs' music available the latest years, be it older and more recent concerts, new band releases or Dave Cousins in various constellations. This time they have dug really deep into the vaults and filled four CD to the rim with previously unissued material. The box spans more than the whole of the band's career, the oldest being from 1966 - a recording of The Strawberry Hill Boys (Cousins, Hooper and John Berry) performing the traditional song "The Grey Hawk" - and the newest is a live recording from 2006, a live performance of "here Today, Gone Tomorrow" from the album Déjà Fou.

Between these two recordings we are presented with a bunch og demoes (many of them performed by Cousins alone with a guitar), alternative "takes", live-recordings from various occasions plus rehearsals. A total of 73 tracks. A numner of musicians participate, among the more exciting (or curious) constellations are Dave Lamberts pre-Strawbs group Fire performing "It's Just Love" (later to appear on Hero & Heroine), a rehearsal-session from 1973 where they tested out the rhythm section from Ten Years After (Leo Lyons and Ric Lee) and a couple of live cuts with Don Airey on keyboards making Strawbs appear as Yes' more pompous relative. Several of the cuts hail from various BBC-recordings, among them very nice versions of "Tomorrow" and "New World" (both from Grave New World) from 1972. Of the more curious sort is the theme from "Ghosts" performed on church bells, Don Airey's solo spot from the 1992 jubilee tour (where he combines Cousins-themes with various well-known classical works), and Cousins' ill-fated try at making success as a cabaret-performer through a truly horrible arrangement of the song "Whichever Way The Wind Blows".

A Taste Of Strawbs is definitely a mixed bag, an uneven combination of goodies and oddities (truly "…a collection of antiques and curios") and it will probably not appeal to the occasional Strawbs-listener. The box comes with a refined and very readable 48-page booklet containing articles, anecdotes and comprehensive comments to each of the 73 recordings.

© 2007 Tarkus Magazine

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