When people think of Folk, they think of: Joan Baez, Pete
Seeger, and Bob Dylan. And their names have been explained over and over again,
but there is one band from Scotland that always had a touch of the coolness,
darkness, and powerful experiences that you’ve never heard before. That group
is String Driven Thing. Since their formation in 1967, they started out as a
trio with two guitars and a tambourine founded by husband and wife duo Chris
and Pauline Adams and John Manion, they moved away from the folky sound into
something as I’ve mentioned before into darker territories and surreal beauty
that has never been done before.
Their two albums (String
Driven Thing & The Machine That
Cried) are a mind-blowing experience from start to finish. Originally released
in the Charisma label in 1972 and 1973, and reissued by the good people from
Esoteric Recordings, this is a special treat if you want to go inside the
different Progressive Folk scene and shows that the Folk genre is not just a
four letter word. Alongside the Adams family (no pun intended), it considers
Graham Smith on violin and Colin Wilson on Bass along with Bill “The Kid”
Fairley who played drums on their third album.
Beginning in 1972 with the release of their second sole
self-titled debut album in which they brought along Shel Talmy, who’s known for
his work with The Kinks, The Who, and Pentangle to name a few as a producer, it
was a match made in heaven. What really surprise me away about String Driven
Thing, is how Chris Adams can really sing very well and a good screamer as well
by belting it out while Graham comes up with these shrieking yet calm-like
moods on his violin and Pauline helps his husband out by singing along by
giving him a helping hand.
Songs like the shuffling funk yet bluesy rocking out powder
keg with a lot of force on My Real Hero
as they go into town by dealing with how God doesn’t play in a Rock & Roll
band as the balls-out intro Circus
that features a heavy guitar driven riff, pummeling tambourine, and a cool bass
line, the lyrics dealing with the childhood memories inside the Tent and seeing
the dangerous animals, clowns, and the dangerous stunts that the performers
have to do on the tightrope, you can tell how this is a good way to start the
album off with a bang.
Then, there’s the catchy melodies including Hooked on the Road & Fairground in which they capture the
beauty of Graham’s violin in which he goes from this country-tinged sound into
an upbeat surrounding that would become the String Driven Thing sound as
Pauline goes into this soothing calm-like vocals on the second track as Graham
and Chris come up with down-home driven beats on their instruments. The waltzy ¾ time signature on the ballad, The Last Blue Yodel, has this wonderful
homage to Fairfield Parlour as Chris’ voice reminisces of Peter Daltrey while
they go back into a psychedelia blues shuffle into the heavy rock mode on Let Me Down as the violin becomes a
Hendrix-like wah-wah solo.
The closer, There You
Are, has this whimsical yet romantic dance-like number as the band dealing
with a song about a man’s love toward this girl who has dreams and can’t stop
taking their eyes on the person he loves so much. It’s a beautiful track and a
great way to close the album off with a wonderful tribute to Harry Nilsson’s
earlier days in the late ‘60s.
The follow up, The
Machine That Cried, released in 1973 is where everything comes at the right
time at the right place. Even though it received mixed reviews at the time of
its release, it is now considered a lost classic as they went into a heavier
and evil mode and Chris was suffering through depression and had a collapsed
lung at the time of the recording sessions were made of their third album, and
still after 40 years after its official release, the album deserves recognition.
Opener, Heartfeeder,
starts off with Graham’s nightmarish violin intro as it goes through a set of
motions before Chris’ voice kicks in and then it becomes a whole new level. His
terrifying vocals sends shivers down my spine as you can imagine the band going
into this sinister upbeat tempo as Colin
Wilson creates some evil walking bass lines to set the mood before going back
into the climatic finale with a silent dramatic ending.
To See You has
this Dylanesque beauty as it almost was recorded during the Nashville Skyline
sessions while they go back into full gear with harder edge into the shuffling
rock mode in the groove on Night Club.
Then Chris shines again with his vocals as Graham and Pauline help out with the
eruptive yet evocative touches on Sold
Down the River. Listening to this, you can feel his pain from his singing
as the violin sets the atmosphere and the drumming helps the powerful touches
to get the scenery and it’s a shrieking and touching moment on the composition.
Then, it’s a revisit to the ‘60s with a Hendrix-like sound
as Pauline takes over on vocals with Two
Timin’ Mama. It has these touches along with Hendrix that Chris does on the
guitar and bits of Richard Thompson’ work as a bit of a tribute to the man from
Fairport Convention and it is a very moody piece on being lost now in the
future and not thinking about the past. The calm after the storm becomes a
lukewarm sunny afternoon as they take a break from the electricity into acoustic
ballads on The House, Travelling and
the vivid People on the Street.
And its back into the haunting mode again with the title
track, which almost sounds like something straight out of a Ray Bradbury short
story, but it’s the dramatic level that really kicks in as both Chris and
Pauline sing together as like a duet on the piece while Graham just goes to
town to give it a huge notch and the rest is a pure adventure. The closing
11-minute epic, River of Sleep, is a
spiritual yet disturbing composition.
There are movements that are; soft, evil, experimental,
spacey, dreamy, and terrifying. And what they do is a spellbinding twist to
come up with various genres to give you the chills as they Graham Smith himself
a chance to shine to improvise as he challenges Darryl Way for the tension
level to set up the variations for someone by going through a nervous breakdown.
And it’s a perfect closing piece to close the album and the curtains to go down
for a thunderous applause.
The bonus tracks are singles that appeared at the time they
were promoting the album. You have the uplifting song on how everything’s stage
for lovers and fools on It’s a Game, then
it’s a roaring volcanic stomping on becoming famous and the price that comes
with it by remembering the past on the ‘50s and ‘60s with Are You a Rock ‘N’ Roller? Not to mention a powerful organ sound while
they go into the Prog Rock sound and bits of Glam Rock in there with the stomping I’ll Sing This One For You by
challenging Slade and Pavlov’s Dog.
The liner notes are spot on as they are done by Sid Smith
who’s best known for his writing on King Crimson and this one features an
interview that he did with Chris Adams. It’s a history on how the band came to
be and during the making of the albums and he has done one hell of a job
researching and for Chris remembering the good old days on String Driven Thing.
Ahead of their time, the band is one of the most true and underrated pioneers
in the history of Progressive Folk.
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