Oysterband The Big Session, Vol. 1

ƒ_otremendous, joyous, remarkable...ƒ__ - (Rolling Stone) 'The joyful spontaneity of these informal and seemingly haphazard unions have been admirably captured a powerful album.' (MOJO - Album Of The Month - 4 stars) MOJO Folk Album Of The Month **** - Mojo ƒ_oNo other folk-rock band has the magnetism and verve of the Oysters liveƒ__ - (Daily Telegraph) ƒ_oEnergetic, joyful set of performances...capturing that anything-could-happen session vibe.ƒ__ - (Time Out) 'A great credit to all involved .... Volume 1 sets a standard that'll be hard to beat.' (FOLK ROOTS) The story: One day, after performing thousands of concerts for audiences and playing in scores of sessions just to entertain themselves and friends (in the pub, in the kitchen, backstage ...), Oysterband had a simple but actually quite subversive idea: take the informal, all-pitch-in spirit of the session, put it on the big stage - and see what happens. Sure after a couple of try-out (but increasingly confident) tours that this could work on record too, they hired a small London venue, Bush Hall, for three days and nights earlier this year, organised an audience, parked a mobile studio on the street outside, and got down to work. The net result is a recording of rare presence and of passionate and hair-raisingly committed singing. Some of it's dark, some of it's fiercely joyous. It's not at all what you'd do given modern studio resources; despite (or because of) which, it's rivetting. Maybe this is what happens when gifted musicians allow themselves to be forced to be simple.