Rise Up Like The Sun

Introduction

In my last thoughtpiece, I wanted to use the image from the Albion Band's "Rise Up Like The Sun", a milestone of a folk/folk-rock album, While I was searching for the picture I found a very cheap copy on vinyl (I already have the CD) so I put in an order for that.

I then remembered what a wonderful album it was, so I thought I would share a few of the songs with you as a Vocal Beat Playlist.

The album was released on the Harvest label, the same as Pink Floyd for many of their albums,

As well as the Albion Band as was, guests included

Kate McGarrigle

Martin Carthy

Andy Fairweather-Low

Julie Covington

Linda Thompson

Pat Donaldson

Dave Bristow

The selections will not be in any particular order, but I love every song on the album. I have the CD reissue that has added an extra four songs and twelve minutes to the original release.

This is the Wikipedia entry if you want to hear a bit more about the album. It tells who sang on which songs and adds information about the songs themselves which I will dip into when I talk about the songs I share:

So here are some reasons why you should get to know this album:

"Poor Old Horse"

Probably the most famous and important song on the album that starts with a single fiddle building over six minutes to a massed choir finale with high voices featuring Kate McGarrigle, Julie Covington and Linda Thompson.

The song was sung at the end of the first month on board ship. Sailors would make a horse figure from rags and tar, hoist it to the yard-arm, then cut it loose and let it drift out to sea. The verse about "Sally in the garden" seems to have drifted in from a different unrelated shanty.

"Time To Ring Some Changes"

For some reason, I thought that I had heard this from a Fairport album, but the Albion Band were the first to release a copy of it. It is one of my favourites and we can see this analogising so many situations. I believe there was a newer version with extra/changed lyrics. but this one is still a perfect song.

Ashley Hutchings was fortunate enough to have a demo tape of Richard Thompson songs written and recorded towards the end of 1972. This tape included Time to Ring Some Changes and Rainbow over the Hill. Both songs were recorded during the Rise Up Like the Sun recording sessions in Chipping Norton in July 1978 with Martin Carthy and Andy Fairweather-Low singing on the first recording and Linda Thompson on the second.

"Gresford Disaster"

This eleven-minute opus closed the original album. It features a lot of instrumental sections, but this is its story:

On 22 September 1934, 265 colliers died at the Gresford Colliery in North Wales. A. L. Lloyd included a version of the song from Yorkshire in his book "Come All Ye Bold Miners" (1952), while Alan Lomax made a field recording of the song from Mrs Cosgrove of Newtongrange, Midlothian, Scotland in the 1950s. The Albion Band set the words to the hymn melody "How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds in a Believer's Ear".

"Rainbow Over The Hill"

This was recorded at the same time as the original album but did not make the cut. It is a beautiful song sung by Linda Thompson and was included on the CD reissue which it now closes.

Conclusion

I have only included four songs, that's a third of the album, but if you like these, then track down a copy for yourself.