Bellowhead - Live : The Farewell Tour

*****

Say goodbye with album of their best live moments!!!

Folk troubadours Bellowhead last year decided it was time to call it a day when enigmatic front man Jon Boden announced his departure. But rather than it being that’s all folks they have embarked on two farewell tours, late last year and one in progress now.

The sad day when they finally hang up their fiddles (and vast quantities of other instruments) as a collective group is in May in Oxford, though I am sure they all have other projects in the pipeline. This release is the final legacy they are leaving with track recorded live across last November’s tour and a DVD of the Leicester date.

I have had the pleasure of seeing Bellowhead perform a number of times, and a true pleasure it really is with the energy and passion they put into every gig. Live is where the music really does, well come alive, with the songs based in the English Folk tradition they were always designed to be played and passed on that way they purely on record.  This will give you the chance to relive the sounds and dance around a few more times.

Across the two discs there is a pretty good reflection of their career with track from across their albums opening with ‘Roll Alabama, 10,000 Miles Away’ and then into an update of a song from the 1600’s ‘Lilibulero’. This has been a feature of Bellowhead that they can take old tunes, or adaptations of traditional tunes and make them sound they wrote them last week bringing them into the current century, retaining the tradition but sounding perfectly natural in a modern arena.

Other favourites from across the years come out with ‘Whiskey is the life of Man’ and the first CD  ending on live favourite ‘Roll the Woodpile Down’. One CD in and what a collection of songs, you still have another fourteen tracks and a DVD to enjoy. Some of the highlights from the last CD are ‘London Town’ and the instrumental and wonderfully named ‘Frogs Legs and Dragon’s teeth’ mostly due to the memories of them live.

If you have never seen Bellowhead, very sorry you missed out and they are one of the best live bands I have had the pleasure of seeing and sadly that won’t be possible again in a few weeks’ time but you should get this to hear a band at the top of their game. If you have, you want this to relive the moments, especially the DVD where it is evident just how much they enjoy what they do. So it may be goodbye soon but we can take away the great sounds and great memories and have one more dance. 

Review by Jon Cooper 

Check Out! a live performance Video for 'Fine Sally' Below...