[2018-02-23] VA "When The Day Is Done: The Orchestrations Of Robert Kirby" (Ace UK)

Linda · **Posted:** Thu Jan 11, 2018 5:07 pm

Description
Nick Drake's first two albums – “Five Leaves Left” and “Bryter Layter” - famously sold in tiny numbers when they were first released at the turn of the seventies. Their re-evaluation in the decades since, and the ever-increasing number of Drake fans around the world - now stretching into the hundreds of thousands - has a lot to do with Robert Kirby, whose string, brass and woodwind arrangements helped to make the records so distinctive.

Totemic of a post-sixties, post-swinging England that wore a greatcoat and kicked up leaves, Kirby’s orchestrations were relaxed, familiar, and entirely autumnal. His talent was appreciated by producer/manager Sandy Robertson, who booked him for other prime British folk-rockers - Ian Matthews, Spirogyra, Shelagh McDonald, Keith Christmas - and by Joe Boyd who asked Kirby to work with Vashti Bunyan.

By the end of the decade, when he quit arranging for an office job, there was almost no one in the folk rock canon Robert Kirby hadn't worked with: Shirley Collins, Ralph McTell, Sandy Denny, Richard and Linda Thompson. He came out of retirement at the end of the nineties and had never been busier than he was at the time of his unexpected death in 2009. “When The Day Is Done” concentrates on his first wave of success, when a Robert Kirby arrangement was a guarantee of something special, a particular melancholic beauty.

Compilation and sleeve note by Bob Stanley.

Tracklist
1. Introduction - Nick Drake
2. Forest And The Shore - Keith Christmas
3. Ophelia's Song - Shelagh McDonald
4. I Keep A Close Watch - John Cale
5. Dancing At Whitsun - Tim Hart & Maddy Pryor
6. Rainbow River - Vashti Bunyan
7. I've Seen The Movie - Andy Roberts
8. White Witch - Spriguns
9. It's My Own Way - Gillian McPherson
10. Follow On - Steve Ashley
11. Silver Threads And Golden Needles - Sandy Denny
12. Love Is A Funny Thing - Spirogyra
13. Friend To Me - Gary Shearston
14. Honour Bright - Shirley Collins
15. First Light - Richard & Linda Thompson
16. Raviole - Audience
17. Madonna Blue - Illusion
18. Gimme An Inch Girl - Ian Matthews
19. What Memories We Make - Dana Gillespie
20. Pick Up A Gun - Ralph McTell

Amazon USA
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07896QSFV/?tag=imwan-20

Amazon UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07896QSFV/?tag=imwan-21

Rokin Robin of Locksley · 20 Oct 2007

Thanks Linda, this could be most interesting. Robert has some haunting strings on a lot of Nick Drake tracks, haven't heard his other stuff.

Linda · **Posted:** Fri Jan 12, 2018 6:08 pm

Bump: We now have the cover image in the first post. Robin brought us the description and tracklist, and I've moved those up into the first post as well.

Kid Bailey · 16 Jul 2006

I know of Kirby through his work with the Strawbs, but I had no idea he worked with so many talented people.
Worth a listen, for sure.

[2018-02-23] VA "When The Day Is Done: The Orchestrations Of Robert Kirby" (Ace UK)

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