Spirits Burning With Bridget Wishart - Earth Born

Free festivals who’s who

Don Falcone, guiding light behind the Spirits Burning space-rock collective, has done sterling work in the genre’s service over the past few years, recruiting many of the scene’s leading lights for his many projects, but he’s surpassed himself with this release. In collaborating with Bridget Wishart, formerly Hawkwind’s sole female lead singer, and member of many 80s festival bands, he’s been able to bring a host of free festival musicians on board for an album that effortlessly mixes contemporary zest with that timeless vibe of campfires and ancient stones.

Spirits Burning regulars such as Daevid Allen and Jefferson Starship’s Trey Sabatelli are blended with Wishart’s former bandmates: Rich Chadwick and Alan Davey from Hawkwind, Sarah Evans from the Hippy Slags and the Demented Stoats’ Steve Bemand. The result is a mature, eclectic and cool psychedelic jazz-rock creation.

Wishart’s lyrics are ethereal ruminations on friendships made and lost on the traveller’s trail, of freedoms found under starry skies or through performance and dance, and of darker undertones: betrayals, disillusionment and excess. It’s a sophisticated and delicate production, particularly the scene-setting title track and Wishart’s duet with Daevid Allen on Crafted From Wood. The festival scene is gone, but the lingering memories are well infused here.

Voiceprint | VP 431 CD

Reviewed by Ian Abrahams
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