(From an e-mail from Neville Judd...the king of Al Stewart rip-offs.)

Al Stewart's new Album "Sparks of Ancient Light" will be released by Appleseed in the United States on September 16 2008 and by EMI in the rest of the World on September 15 2008.



Magical history tours have been Al Stewart's trademark since the early 1970s, when he switched from writing about his own romantic turmoil to a wider view of the world and its rich cast of characters and events. While his 1976 international hit single, "Year of the Cat," was tied to no specific time, the albums surrounding it combined finely drawn character studies and detailed settings that ranged across continents and centuries, forming the template of history mixed with mystery for Al's subsequent recordings.

Everything changes with time - except basic human motivations. [title]Sparks of Ancient Light[/title], Al's latest collection of songs (following 2005's A Beach Full Of Shells), spans at least 2500 years of history in its tales of exotic locations and situations, all tied to an underlying theme of "certainly and uncertainty." Something's happening in each of these songs, a sense of change and movement beneath the sometimes sedate, sometimes dramatic facades. The larger context isn't always obvious, but the emotions behind the action are always recognizable - love, greed, wanderlust, jealousy, complacency, curiosity, regret, hope.

With winningly varied arrangements mixing folk, rock, classical and jazz, and immaculate production from multiple-Grammy-winning guitarist Laurence Juber (formerly of Paul McCartney's Wings), the CD both starts and ends with songs set in 1896. The opening "Lord Salisbury" examines Great Britain's prime minister flinching from the oncoming events threatening his policy of "splendid isolationism," while the protagonist of the "Like William McKinley" finale awaits the rush of progress with calm resignation. In between those bookends, we are shown "(A Child's View of) The Eisenhower Years," a bouncy evocation of post-World War II optimism; a freaked-out Elvis Presley undergoing a religious revelation as he witnesses Josef Stalin's face morphing into Jesus Christ in a desert cloud formation (true story!) in "Elvis at the Wheel"; an international con man hoodwinking the well-to-do who embrace him as their latest diversion ("Sleepwalking"); and Hanno the Navigator (in the same-named song), sailing from Carthage off the end of the world to indescribable adventures 500 years before the Christian calendar, among others. The song set closest to the present, "Shah of Shahs," finds the Shah of Iran caught in a decline of power in 1979 that eerily resembles today's scenario in the White House.

With Juber and Stewart on guitars, accompanied by gliding, jazzy keyboards, a rhythm section and occasional horns and strings, the mood of each song is well-matched to its accompaniment. Al's erudite lyrics, instantly recognizable Scottish/British drawl, and seductive tunes present him at the top of his art, braiding historical fact and speculative imagination into yet another memorable collection of musical short stories that whisks us up, down and sideways in time and place.

The Track listing is -

1. Lord Salisbury
2. (A Child¹s View of) the Eisenhower Years
3. The Ear of The Night
4. Hanno The Navigator
5. Shah of Shahs
6. Angry Bird
7. The Loneliest Place on the Map
8. Sleepwalking
9. Football Hero
10. Elvis at The Wheel
11. Silver Kettle
12. Like William McKinley

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001CW7LPC/?tag=imwan-20

Great title. Originally it was supposed to be released early summer. Can't wait!

The release date is Sept. 16 but keep an eye on Al's official website. It will be offered for sale from the site sooner than the Sept date. Sign up on the site an you'll get an email when it becomes available for sale from the website. That announcement should be coming shortly!

http://www.alstewart.com/
http://www.nevillejudd.com/

I've said this before and I'll say it again...do anything that involves Neville Judd with a very heavy dose of skepticism. He may be well-intentioned, though I'm not even sure of that, but he often fails to deliver on what he's offered. When he does deliver, it's typically after much prodding and usually well after any previously announced time frame. To me, the name Neville Judd = CAVEAT EMPTOR!

All of my orders from Neville arrived quickly and in perfect condition!

Consider yourself fortunate. You're one of the lucky ones. Neville is obviously very disorganized and some of the stuff he's sold in the past has been hastily slapped together CD-R crap. He's full of excuses, but frequently fails to deliver at all.

Like I said all my orders arrived quickly. Well packaged and in good condition. Every time that I have e-mailed him with a question he has replied to my emails within minutes!
If the stuff he sells is not quality product then why does he have Al's approval to sell it? Al seems like a perfectionist.

Well I wasn't going to go into all of the details, but to make a long story short, Neville went on a tear a while back, selling all kinds of Al Stewart stuff directly. He got in way over his head and I foolishly sent multiple orders that ended up being hundreds of dollars in total. There kept being delays and promises of things coming that ultimately never did. Finally, with seemingly no other recourse, I started communicating with Al's management company, explaining to them how Neville's actions were a stain on Al's reputation. To be fair, I copied Neville on everything. I didn't do it behind his back. Suddenly he as falling all over himself to appear responsive. There were a number of complaints I heard through multiple sources. When Neville finally started fulfilling the backed up orders, he did so in a very sloppy fashion. Many CDs arrived as CD-Rs with very cheap paper stick-on labels. Others came screen printed, but in blank jewel cases with no paperwork at all. It would have been one thing if we were paying cheap prices, but in many cases, things were selling in the $20/CD ballpark as I remember. To this day, years later, there are still things that I've never received, in spite of numerous reminders and promises. What I've told you here isn't even the complete story. Maybe Neville has gotten better. I know better than to place orders with him any longer, so I couldn't speak for the past year or so.

As for Al, my sense is that while he may be a prefectionist when it comes to the music, he seems content to let Neville handle everything not related to performing. He seems happy focusing on his craft and performing in small places all over the world. Truthfully, I can't say I blame him. It's just too bad that Neville has been so unreliable. Thankfully, Al is still touring and I get to see him whenever he's in the area. He's typically got a table set up at the shows as well, oddly enough sometimes manned by Neville himself. That way, I can purchase things face to face. It's too bad that for too long, the only way you could get some of this material was via Neville. That's why I was glad when the reissues were done by someone else.

Many of the cds that Neville was selling were way out of my price range. I have all the recent Collectors Choice cds but only wish that those cds had recieved better packaging.

Well consider yourself fortunate that you didn't take the plunge. They were very quickly and sloppily assembled.

I always regretted not being able to afford all the live releases and unrelased tracks that Neville had for sale. After what you said I don't feel so bad now. All I ever ordered from Neville were official releases.

I can 2nd the "bewares" about Neville, at least as far as his "bootlegs" are concerned. I know people that bought stuff from him and received very poorly burned CDRs - bad enough that some of the discs had so many errors they wouldn't play right, but they also were burned incorrectly in Track-At-Once mode with 2 second gaps between tracks :-P

Also many of the high priced CDRs that he sells are FM shows (or even AUD ones? I 4get) that are commonly available for free trade/download in trader circles.

And I cannot remember exactly what happened, but I had an issue with the guy myself that I wasn't very happy with. Since then I avoid him 100% and refuse to buy anything he peddles.

If you trust Neville Judd, here's a chance to throw more money at him...

http://www.nevillejudd.com/index.php?id=64

Here's the text:

Al, Laurence and everyone else that has heard Sparks Of Ancient Light agree that it’s an amazing CD.

And it is. If you liked Past, Present and Future or Modern Times or Year Of The Cat or A Beach Full Of Shells you will love this record. I took the photo to the left of Al at home, holding the new CD, this past weekend. I think he looks pretty proud of the album!

We will ship the CD on release day.

From the historical Folk Rock of Lord Salisbury to the surreal Elvis At The Wheel via the wonderful Angry Bird this is a completely FAB record.

And then there is The Loneliest Place On The Map... one of the most beautiful songs Al has ever written.

We wanted to give you something special along with Sparks Of Ancient Light and are making available a DVD Documentary that we shot during the making of the CD.

It features Al and Laurence in the studio, backstage in dressing rooms and the one off performance in LA of songs from the album with Cellist Hope Easton.

And for the first time ever, Al and Laurence sat down together to talk about the Quartet of Albums that they have now recorded and the DVD features that Interview.

Plus, there is a separate CD of Al talking about Sparks Of Ancient Light Track by Track and a Photo Gallery of exclusive pictures from the making of the CD.

You can get all of this when you order Sparks Of Ancient Light here.

To Order, Click one of the 3 Buttons below...

Fans anywhere in the World
Sparks Of Ancient Light CD +
2 Disc DVD/CD Companion Set
£ 24.99

US Fans
Sparks Of Ancient Light CD
$16

Non US Fans
Sparks Of Ancient Light CD
£ 12


Since the GBP is trading now at about $2.00, that makes the DVD/CD "companion set" cost $34.00 over and above the $16 they're charging for just the CD. That Neville is a real peach of a guy, isn't he?

I'll stick with just the cd and order it from CD Universe!

I hope to see Al live later this year and I'll pick up his latest then, hopefully at the gig. I'll pass on the more fan club oriented stuff though.

For sale today at CD Baby! One full month before the retail release date. Just ordered mine and it shipped 3 hours after I placed the order!
http://cdbaby.com/cd/alstewart2

already out of stock!

very enjoyable listen, although nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary for al stewart.

just typical al stewart. which, for my money, isn't too bad.

laurence juber plays excellent guitar as usual.

and it is HDCD although not marked anywhere on the package.

renny

I agree with Renny's assessment (PINCH ME!) so far. I really need more time with it though. I have no problem with Laurence Juber, but I really miss Peter White. I'd much rather have him working with Al instead of doing his Light-Jazz/Adult Contemporary Instrumental stuff. There's plenty of that out there without him.

I got SOAL about 5 weeks ago. It took a good month to fully sink in. It's very very good.