Credits:

Dave Cousins

Description:

Dave Cousins offers a characteristic set of versatile folk-rock on The Boy in the Sailor Set, backed by the Blue Angel Orchestra. It's not a Strawbs album, but it shares similarities with many of the records he's recorded as leader of that group. The songs are on the somber storytelling side; the rock is sometimes harder than it is in most British folk-rock efforts; and Cousins' foggy voice exudes wary, and sometimes weary, stoicism and caution. Typical of his twists is the scenario laid out in "Never Take Sweets from a Stranger," where a steamy and sudden sexual liaison ends when his paramour becomes the victim of a hit-and-run accident, though it doesn't sound as contrived on record as it might on paper. When not going for a full-bodied rock sound, Cousins is capable of more pensive acoustic stuff with a heavier rural British folk and country flavor, Ian Cutler's fiddle proving a crucial ingredient on such outings. Sometimes he ventures near a more bludgeoning hard rock sound, which is less likable and effective, even building off a "Green Onions"-like riff on "Hellfire Blues." There aren't all that many records around where the leader can sound both like a modern sea shanty singer and a guy with more mainstream board-strutting chunky rock aspirations. But this is one of them, and it's not the only such thing Cousins has done. ~ Richie Unterberger

Tracklisting:

1.NEVER TAKE SWEETS FROM A STRANGER
2.MELLOW MOON
3.THE SMILE YOU LEFT BEHIND
4.CALLING OUT MY NAME
5.MOTHER LUCK
6.WISH YOU WERE HERE
7.SKIP TO MY LOU
8.LONELY DAYS, LONELY NIGHTS
9.BRINGING IN THE HARVEST
10.HELLFIRE BLUES
11.NEVER TAKE SWEETS FROM A STRANGER (LIVE - RECORDED AT SHANK HALL, MILWAUKEE 18th MARCH 2008) (Bonus Track)
12.SKIP TO MY LOU (LIVE - RECORDED AT THE STRAWBS 40TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION, TWICKENHAM 12th & 13th SEPTEMBER 2009) (Bonus Track)
13.HELLFIRE BLUES (LIVE - RECORDED AT THE STRAWBS 40TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION, TWICKENHAM 12th & 13th SEPTEMBER 2009) (Bonus Track)