Strawbs trio just keeps on going
Dave Cousins, founder of the venerable English band Strawbs, has good reason to be excited. He’s just returned from an Acoustic Strawbs gig — the last in the English leg of dates before the band comes back to Canada.
“I have some great things to tell you,” he exclaims, sipping on a glass of his favourite wine, chatting on the phone from his home in Deal, a quaint coastal village in Kent, England. “Last year, Rolling Stone magazine listed (1974 album) “Hero and Heroine” as one of the 50 greatest progressive rock albums of all time. In fact, I am looking at the gold disc on the wall now. For us this is an incredible accolade,” he notes, adding that “H&H” also sold huge quantities in the U.K., the U.S., and Canada where the band has played many times over the years.
Strawbs is the short form for strawberries.
“I think the Strawbs name is the worst thing I ever did,” notes Cousins. “Because it was okay in the U.K. We were known as The Strawberry Hill Boys. The Strawbs was a natural. You go to America and try and tell people what your name is the Strabs? Nope. The Strobes? No. The Strawbs — short for strawberries!” says Cousins laughing but still a wee bit exasperated at the thought of it. “If we had a simpler name like the Strawberry Hill Boys, we would have been called the Boys or something like that. I seriously think that did inhibit us at the time anyway,” adds Cousins with another laugh.
The Strawberry Hill Boys bluegrass band formed in 1964 and was shortened to Strawbs in 1967. Cousins also played with the late folk singer Sandy Denny of Fairport Convention and Fotheringay. Then, because of Cousin’s distinct vocals, the band’s sound shifted to folk rock and eventually its timeless progressive rock sound. Through the decades the band has worked with keyboard masters Rick Wakeman of Yes (and recently Wakeman’s sons Adam and Oliver), Blue Weaver of the Bee Gees, Mott the Hoople; Don Airey of Deep Purple; and John Hawken of The Nashville Teens — just a few branches of the Strawbs’ acclaimed family tree.
Cousins laughs out loud at being dubbed the Kevin Bacon of British prog rock.
“Yes, everything links together. We are all part of the family. It is extraordinary!” he says.
He explains there are presently two distinct elements to the Strawbs.
The Acoustic Strawbs features the original 1974 front line of the band: Dave Lambert, acoustic guitar/vocals; and Chas Cronk, acoustic bass and pedals. Cousins plays guitar, banjo and dulcimer.
The Electric Strawbs features Cronk, Lambert and Cousins with drummer Tony Fernandez (Rick Wakeman), and David Bainbridge of the Celtic prog rock group Iona.
“The Electrics” who have just recorded a 2016 version of “Hero and Heroine, will be touring in a year’s time.
“The Acoustic Strawbs is where you get the stories with the music,” notes Cousins. “I cannot tell stories because with the electric band you cannot follow the lyrics. But our music is intensely emotional. And that is what people like. People identify with the Strawbs because they are important for their lyrics. It is not just the music,” says Cousins. “With Acoustic Strawbs we take the original song when it was recorded, take it apart and then work out how we are going to do it with just the three of us. It becomes a totally different treatment of the song,” he adds.
After reviewing the Strawbs touring history in Canada — a “mish mash” of songs — Cousins has decided to do a Strawbs travelogue.
“The whole philosophy of this trip is explaining where the songs came from,” he explains. “Some people may have heard these songs from a different perspective with different storylines. We have gone back and we have chosen different songs. There are songs we have never ever sung before. We only did three shows with one particular song. It is the most powerful, emotional, moving, song we have ever done — like a Sergio Leone version of the Strawbs,” he says, adding he will bring his antique dulcimer for the Canadian tour.
Cousins says the Strawbs career began in Denmark with their self-titled album debut — featuring opening track “A Man Who Called Himself Jesus” inspired by a record store owner’s vignette about an unusual customer — and follow up “Dragonfly” produced by Tony Visconti.
Cousins is thrilled about a recent Visconti quote that, for him, brings the band’s musical legacy full circle.
When asked to name his top six produced albums Visconti cited David Bowie’s “Heroes” (1977) and “Blackstar” (2016); T-Rex’s “The Slider” (1972); Gentle Giant self-titled album (1970); Morrissey’s “Ringleader of The Tormentors” (2006) and the Strawbs’ “Dragonfly” from 1970.
Visconti: “The Strawbs had started out as this little folk trio and look what happened to them. They had two amazing keyboard players in Rick Wakeman and Blue Weaver. But I think “Dragonfly” was the beginning of them becoming a very, very, serious band of progressive musicians. It is not that usual for a band to come from folk roots and then go on to become a big concert rock band.”