Blood Wedding

Oysterband's Trawler is a compilation of favorites from the group's previous seven albums, only newly recorded by the present lineup. Essentially, it's like a "covers" album of The Oysterband covering itself. Long one of Britain's prime synthesists of Celtic and rock, and a thorn in the side of purists everywhere, Trawler takes the group's material one step further away from tradition. Hal-An-Tow is a possessed whirligig of sounds; Oxford Girl reconfirms itself as the group's most memorable melody. One has to admit to slight unease with the "rewriting history" aspect of this re-recording, and a compilation of the original versions would have been far more comfortable.

An impressive collection, Granite Years: Best of 1986-1997 contains over two hours of the finest Oysterband has to offer. Frequently, such comprehensive releases are the cause for debate among the most devoted fans. But that is not the scenario surrounding this release. From Step Outside's "Hal-an-Tow" to Wide Blue Yonder's "The Oxford Girl" to Holy Bandits' "Blood Wedding" to Deep Dark Ocean's "Native Son," this release hits all of the key tracks by this legendary British folk-rock band. If there is any drawback, it is that no track from their 1991 release, From Little Rock to Leipzig, was included and a whopping seven tracks from their previous best-of release, Trawler, grace the track list of this two-CD set. It should be clarified that Trawler was a collection of re-recorded favorites that originally appeared on previous albums. That's a minor detail that won't matter to the uninitiated and is easily overlooked by the hardcore fan simply due to the preponderance of superb material found within these 30 tracks.