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FOLK & COUNTRY
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"...Daddy Lonesome..."
By the time Belfast-man David McWilliams had reached the lovely "Lord Offaly" LP in 1972 - he'd already clocked up three other Folk-Rock LPs on Major Minor of the UK and Kapp Records of the USA between 1967 and 1968 - "Days Of Pearly Spencer" probably being his most famous song which finally charted in 1992 only when Soft Cell's Marc Almond covered it.
Then our lonesome Folky Ulsterman signed to England's Dawn Records for three more musically expansive albums - 1972, 1973 and 1974 ballad-driven big boys with flashy mottled gatefold sleeves, extensive wordy inners and Country Rock Pedal Steel Guitars a whining like gooduns. And that's where this superb August 2020 2CD BGO reissue comes storming in - offering up again those three vinyl obscurities plus three more Bonus Tracks (two single sides and an album outtake only available on a deleted 2002 CD compilation).
It's not all genius by any means and his neither-here-nor-there vocals are often akin to lightweight versions of Ronnie Lane or Mickey Newbury, but there is much that is pretty and lyrically memorable too. Let's get to the beggars, the clergy and the singer in the one-man band...
UK released Friday, 14 August 2020 - "Lord Offaly/The Beggar And The Priest/Livin's Just A State Of Mind" by DAVID McWILLIAMS on Beat Goes On BGOCD1425 (Barcode 5017261214256) offers 3LPs Remastered onto 2CDs with Three Bonus Tracks and plays out as follows:
CD1 (63:06 minutes):
1. Go On Back To Momma (From The Film "Gold") [Side 1]
2. She Was A Lady
3. I Will Always Be Your Friend
4. Heart Of The Roll
5. I Would Be Confessed
6. Spanish Hope [Side 2]
7. Blind Men’s Stepping Stones
8. Lord Offaly
9. The Prisoner
10. The Gypsy
Tracks 1 to 10 are his 4th studio album "Lord Offaly" – released July 1972 in the UK on Dawn Records DNLS 3039 and 1973 in the USA on Pye Records PYE 3302 (distributed by Bell Records). Produced by DAVID McWILLIAMS and DAVE HUNT with all songs written by McWilliams – the LP didn't chart in either country.
11. Cross The Line [Side 1]
12. Na-Na
13. Down By The Dockyard (An Epitaph For Belfast)
14. Bells Of Time
15. Lady Margaret
Tracks 11 to 15 are Side 1 of his fifth studio album "The Beggar And The Priest" - released April 1973 in the UK on Dawn Records DNLS 3047. Produced by RAY FENWICK - it didn't chart
CD2 (72:21 minutes):
1. Daddy Lonesome [Side 2]
2. Morning That Looks Like Rain
3. The Pharisee
4. The Horseman
5. Leave The Bottles On The Floor
Tracks 1 to 5 are Side 2 of his fifth studio album "The Beggar And The Priest" - released April 1973 in the UK on Dawn Records DNLS 3047. Produced by RAY FENWICK - it didn't chart
6. Singer In The Band [Side 1]
7. You Wear it Like A Crown
8. Twenty Golden Years Ago
9. Sad Dark Eyes
10. As I Used To Know Her
11. You've Only Been A Stranger [Side 2]
12. Please Come Home
13. Sweet Lil'
14. Livin's Just A State Of Mind
15. Epitaph
Tracks 6 to 15 are his sixth studio album "Livin's A State Of Mind" - released May 1974 in the UK on Dawn Records DNLS 3059. Produced by KEN BURGESS - it didn't chart
BONUS TRACKS:
16. Ships In The Night – April 1974 UK non-album B-side to the 45-single for "You've Only Been A Stranger" on Dawn Records DNS 1064
17. I Only Know You As A Stranger – first appeared as an album outtake on the September 2002 UK 2CD compilation "Days At Dawn" on Castle Music CMDDD452
18. Love Like A Lady – October 1973 UK non-album A-side 45-single on Dawn Records DNS 1044 with "Down By The Dockyard" from the "The Beggar And The Priest" LP as its B-side
Featured Musicians: Guitarists Ray Fenwick of The Spencer David Group, Fancy and many more, BJ Cole of Cochise, Mike Moran of Roger Glover’s Band, Garth Watt-Roy of East Of Eden and Fuzzy Duck, Keyboardist Tommy Eyre of Alex Harvey’s Band, Violinists Joe O’Donnell of East Of Eden and Mushroom, Wilf Gibson of Centipede and Electric Light Orchestra, Bassists Roger Sutton of Blue Whale and Jody Grind, John Perry of Grapefruit and Caravan with Drummers Barry De Souza and Bruce Rowland. David McWilliams sang all vocals and played guitars.
As ever with these BGO releases, the outer card slipcase lends the reissue a look of class and the last time all of this material was available digitally was in 2002 and that "Days At Dawn" is long deleted. The original three vinyl LPs each had a gatefold sleeve and copious amounts of session/song explanation details - so the chunky 24-page booklet that reproduces all of it doesn't actually start its new April 2020 JOHN O'REGAN liner notes until Page 15. But typical of his excellence as these things, he goes album-to-album and almost track-to-track in his appraisals - so there is a lot to read and properly informative it is too.
The High-Def Remasters are from BGO's resident Audio Engineer ANDREW THOMPSON and are warm, expressive and full of accomplished session-players filling your speakers as they embellish almost every song (I'll name them next as we go along). To the music...
In July 2016 Esoteric Recordings of the UK put out a straightforward Reissue and Remaster of "Lord Offaly" which I reviewed - Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 2559 (Barcode 5013929465947).
The opening track to the "Lord Offaly" LP is from a 60ts movie depicting far out hippy life and 'free love' to a musical backdrop of MC5 whilst 'the man' establishment tries to oppress all of the aforementioned rumpy-pumpy and good times. The film "Gold" was finally released in 1972 (filmed in 1968) - opening with "Go On Back To Mamma" - its theme song supplied by David McWilliams and the Side 1 opener here. It immediately feels 'American' in its Emitt Rhodes structures - a better produced Elton John. It turned up as the B-side to the March 1973 UK 7" single to "Gold" on Mother Records MOT 101. Quite why Dawn didn't use one of the album tracks like "Heart Of The Roll" or even "Go On Back To Momma" as a lead-off single is a mystery - the album could have benefitted from such a plug. The pretty "She Was A Lady" feels very Phillip Goodhand-Tate or even Colin Blunstone - sweet piano and vocals from McWilliams. His philosophy of love and comradeship flows out of the overly busy "I Will Always Be Your Friend" while "Heart Of The Roll" is undoubtedly one of the LP's highlights. It feels like Help Yourself or even McGuinness Flint - McWilliams' vocals like the Eggs Over Easy debut album. Beautiful remaster quality on the Side 1 finisher "I Would Be Confessed" - a 'wondering days are through' confessional which sees David delivery a warm song with sincerity.
My personal fave is the beautiful instrumental "Spanish Hope" which opens the more-overtly Folky Side 2 - a ballad where Acoustic Guitars strums are soon joined by a wailing penny-whistle lament - as deeply Celtic as Simple Minds and just as reminiscent. That same Folk Jaunt follows with "Blind Men's Stepping Stones" where the historical chap Emon Lynott 'curses his fate' as he mandolins his way over the stones of Co. Mayo's Duvowen River (forced by rebel Welsh militia to do so). Sounds like a Bouzouki at the opening of "Lord Offaly" - another undoubted highlight on the LP - a very warm melody from McWilliams that chronicles the distrust of England's King Henry by locals in Ireland's Maynooth. Even at 6:33 minutes - it doesn't overstay its welcome and feels like great Fairport Convention or even Sandy Denny. It ends on more history lessons in the plaintive and hurting "The Prisoner" and "The Gypsy" - tales of hungry ordinary folk paying the price for stealing bread and wine and thereafter transformed into rebels at the hands of their heartless landlords...
A very aural and permanent musical seed-change takes place with "The Beggar And The Priest" and the "Livin's A State Of Mind" LPs in that both feature the distinctive Pedal Steel guitar of BJ Cole from Cochise. In short they veer into Country Rock big time and at times feel like anaemic McGuinness Flint. The songs are strong in many cases, but there is no doubt that the instruments and top-heavy drama production can make it all feel a tad dated. "Cross The Line" opens Side 1 of the "Beggar..." album with a politically charged tale of brothers crossing a picket line – hammers in hand and heads down low. "Na-Na" goes back to Acoustic Folk Rock but throws in an alarming Salsa rhythm as mischievous lovers hurl rocks at other lovers canoodling on the train tracks below until they in turn can take no more and kick back with an equally irritating barrage of brick-love missiles. The hardship ogre of unemployment crops up again in "Down By The Dockyard" – the water in Belfast shipyards, like the cranes, lying still – big boat work no longer coming to a once proud town famous for such a heritage. Unfortunately syrupy strings make it somewhat saccharine and the Pedal Steel of "Bells Of Time" makes that tune feel dated also.
I love the Blues shuffle of "Daddy Lonesome" over on Side 2 while Wilf Gibson of Centipede and Electric Light Orchestra plays violin on the cautionary tale of frisky preachers targeting easy-to-prey-on women "The Pharisee". McWilliams channels his inner Bob Dylan and "John Wesley Harding" Country Rock whine in "The Horseman" – the guitar work of Mike Moran and Ray Fenwick feeling like Robbie Robertson of The Band has joined the fray. But the best track is the epic "Lady Margaret" – where our hero walks out in the May Morning green fields in search of the mysterious Mags and her equally lithesome Lady Evelainne – BJ Cole and loads others building the song with layers of instruments. John Perry of Grapefruit and Caravan lends his Bass to tracks on the album also.
1974's "Livin's A State Of Mind" LP opens with even higher Production values but the see-your-name-in-lights "Singer In The Band" feels corny and not touching. Way better is "You Wear It Like A Crown" – a pretty song about worshipping his lady through words even if they’ve all been used before (Joe O'Donnell of Mushroom and East of Eden fame lends his electric violin). "Twenty Golden Years Ago" is a coffee-shop song – thoughts of supping froth for hours on end at a Formica table back when life was simpler. Lovely warm Production on the black hair shining of "Sad Dark Eyes" – piano rolling out sweet notes as we learn that the object of his heart is betrothed by a wealthy father to someone less worthy (one day she will be mine). But my other fave on a somewhat patchy album is another sweet tune called "Please Come Home" – an Acoustic picker with piano joining the melody half way through its long opening instrumental passage.
I would swear the B-side "Ships In The Night" is a vinyl dub because of the suspicious loss in fidelity – but shockingly the other two Bonus cuts are fabulous – "Love Like A Lady" is a very strong song that would have bolstered up the album considerably - while an alternate version of the "Livin's Just A State Of Mind" LP track "You've Only Been A Stranger" is presented as and embryonic "I Only Know You As A Stranger" – and it feels like a powerful Donovan ballad stripped of all the instrument clutter the album version employs to impress (gorgeous audio too).
David McWilliams is forgotten now and with his overwrought tunes and slightly unimpressive vocal range – is easy to hear why the albums just didn't elicit interest at the time. But put together like this (3LPs onto 2CDs) and with two of those three Bonus cuts being genuinely worthy of the moniker – BGO has weaved together a very strong package indeed to celebrate his unfairly forgotten songwriter's legacy. Recommended...
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