Song of the Week – The Falling Song, Chris Barber

Ignored           Obscured            Restored

I’m a loyal supporter of MOJO magazine, trying to convince any music lover I can that they should be a subscriber.  Why do I promote the magazine so reliably?  Because I still find it to be the very best source for discovering great, new music that I wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to.  So if your thirst for new music is as voracious as mine, MOJO offers listening ideas as plentiful as candy corn at Halloween.

For instance, the “Buried Treasure” article in the October 2018 issue featured an album called Drat That Fratle Rat! by Chris Barber, the British, traditional jazz trombonist.  At the time of its release in 1972, Barber was already 42 years old, which made him an unlikely collaborator with some of the hot rock ‘n roll talents of the day, including Irish guitar slinger Rory Gallagher and Stone the Crows drummer Colin Allen.

Intrigued, I had to check this out.  And I’m glad I did!

My choice for SotW is the second cut on the album – “The Falling Song” — and features a vocal by Tony Ashton who performed (vocals, keyboards) with a who’s who of British rock royalty with various bands and as a session player

What really grabs me about “The Falling Song” is its sophisticated, jazzy horn arrangement.  That shouldn’t come as a surprise since this is really Barber’s gig.  The result is a British sounding version of the David Clayton-Thomas era Blood Sweat & Tears.

This is music worth hearing that I likely would never have discovered without MOJO.

Enjoy… until next week.