Alan Stivell's 'Chemins De Terre', 'A L'Olympia', 'E Langonned' and 'Renaissance Of The Celtic Harp'.

I used to be a huge Alan Stivell fan. I'm not sure - maybe I still am - deep down maybe, though the last thing I bought by him was a CD called 'Again' back in 1993 on which he revisits his greatest hits in new versions with guests-stars Shane McGowan, Kaste Bush & Davey Spillane. Not exactly a positive experience for me I must say. In theory at least, I still like the acoustic albums he did: the almost traditional E Langonned, the Celtic twilit Trema'n Inis, and the jazzy Journee a la Maison, though one of my favourites was a real killer dark folk funk album he did in the early eighties called Terre des vivants. I wonder if I could still listen to that?

Saw him a few times, solo & with the band but his live shows tended to feature the greatest hits. Once (at Glasgow Green festival in 1984??) I watched him soundchecking the whole of his Legend album (a favourite of mine at the time) but they did none of it on the night.

I know we're straying from Pip's remit here, but what about Malicorne, eh? They sure could teach us Brits a thing or two about Folk Rock.