The first Reviews!!

As at 3rd July, our new Robin & Barry Dransfield double CD release seems to have been well-received by the wide world of Folk Music!! We have shipped over one thousand three hundred double CDs in under three weeks, and there has been a clamour for review copies from Folk Journalists, reviewers, Roots Fans, folk shops and Radio Stations from Tasmania to Seattle, Turrif to Twickenham!! Here's some excerpts from reviews seen so far.. from Folk Roots, July '97 Issue: ....quot;Free Reed's Neil Wayne, a serious obsessive if ever there was one, has put together as near a definitive collection of Dransfieldabilia as anyone could ask. He already had their Popular to Contrary Belief album in the Free Reed vaults to kick off with, but it's what he's added which is the real feat. Not only has he wrested a couple of tracks from each of their Trailer albums out of Harrogate and Hell, he's unearthed a whole swathe of BBC sessions of their Fiddler's Dream-era repertoire, licensed items from Barry's Polydor, Topic and Rhiannon albums and Robin's Topic outing, something from Morris On, a long-lost track from a BBC Folk on Friday album, and all sorts. It's all assembled with a fine Colin Irwin note, a bunch of historic photos, and immaculate credit to sources. Just about the only thing missing is a blast of the mid '60s Crimple Mountain Boys to put it all in perspective!! There's a special kind of telepathy that makes vocal and instrumental interplay between sibling duos a cut above the average. The Dransfields had it in bucket-loads: the Everly Brothers of English folk music." ..........Ian A Anderson from The Living Tradition - (Scotland): June 1997 "...Had this been simply a re-issue of classic Robin & Barry albums, it would have jumped straight to the top of my 'Must Have' list: - this double CD is much more than that - Neil Wayne has not only teased out vinyl tracks for re-issue, but has accessed BBC concert recordings to make this a genuine new release! With thirty-nine tracks, it runs in total over 156 minutes - yes - over two and a half hours! - and features a substantial amount of unreleased material. The Dransfields - two brothers singing in harmony - had as distinctive a sound as The Watersons, instantly recognisable, earthy, and with a similar earthy Yorkshire accent. Even now their instrumental work is regarded as top class - and we can but muse on the impact they might have made on the history of Folk Rock had they stayed together a little longer! An immensely enjoyable album, with both new and classic recordings from a vibrant era of the folk revival - two CDs crammed full of music - a landmark release in 1997!......ete Heywood from Chris Nickson's draft review for - Dirty Linen- (USA): July 1997 "...hat a record! An absolute joy, and kudos to (Free Reed) for releasing it. Wonderful." from Mike Kamp's draft review in Folk Michel (Germany)- July 1997 "Absolutely brilliant work - we did not know how much we'd missed those incredible voices and harmonies. Hope you will sell millions - rave review follows...!" ..from Folk on Tap - July 1997.. "..One of music's great mysteries is the lack of widespread acclaim for the truly great Robin & Barry Dransfield. Having run the gamut of Trailer, Transatlantic, Polydor, Topic and Free Reed labels, the duo retired into the world of instrument restoration and repairing. The time was obviously right for a long overdue appraisal of their influential career, but as Barry said in late 1996 - "I'm tired of record companies telling me they're going to re-issue the old tapes, saying they're really into this music, then not doing anything about it.." This barb happily coincided with the creation of Neil Wayne's ambitious "Up to Now" Dransfield Anthology project, a 39-track superlative mix of old vinyl material and unreleased radio sessions - faithfully restored, remastered and packaged with a vault's-worth of intriguing material, this set boasts stunning sound and a staggeringly fine booklet (containing a complete discography, lots of biographical material, embarrassing photos, and up-to-date news of the duo) all of which create as definitive a 'Dransfield Retrospective' as possible, and is an exemplary example of how to provide an overview of the duo's career. The logistics of this type of project are simply staggering - licencing permissions to obtain, artists' permissions granted, master-tapes located & remastered, archive reesearch on each track's background, copyright and composer details sought, royalties agreed, correct credits given, sleeve notes written etc. etc..Many a similar project has floundered - so Neil is to be congratulated for his dedication and tenacity in pursuit of the dream Dransfield anthology!! On any family tree of the English folk scene, the Dransfields hold an unassailable position, and "Up to Now" is a reminder of what a force they were" .....eoff Wall

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