Review: 'Windward Away' (Archie Fisher)

Subject: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: maeve
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 08:44 AM

Please join me in celebrating the new cd release from my friend Archie Fisher; thirteen years in the making. It's on the Red House label, found here:

http://www.redhouserecords.com/


Don't look for critical commentary from me, folks. I've waited for this for a very long time, and I'm more than delighted by what I'm hearing. Archie's guitar work continues to fill my ears with the beauty of the Borderlands, the sea, Ontario, a beloved horse. He sings of all of these, as well as of friendship and love.

New tracks included are:
Borderlands, Ontario Dust, Bonnie Border Lass, Windward Away, Surge of the Sea, River and the Road, Shepherd on the Hill, Every Man's Heart, Ride Through the Rainbow, Speak Your Name, Before Eternity

I've had an early version of "Windward Away" (in poem form, then called "Neptune's Daughter) framed on my wall since the early 1980s, and had in fact set it to music before I learned it was still under revision. I finally know how it was resolved!

Along with the new tracks, there are eight tracks from a once-missing master recorded on the Blackbird label when he was touring with Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy.

Tracks from the missing master are:

Final Trawl, The Winter It Is Past, Silver Coin, Star of Belle Isle, Ashfields and Brine, Eire Lingers, Cuillins of Home, Joy of My Heart.
Some of the "missing master" instrumentation surprised me, yet I enjoyed all of the older cuts.

Supporting musicians include Archie Fisher, Flyde, David Paton, Allan Barty, Lucy Cowan, Francis Cowan, Christina Cowan, Mike Whellans. The sound is clean, the musicianship exquisite, and I am so very happy to have this album at long last. I will be learning and singing every one I can glue to my memory.

Thank you to Red House Records, to Hart Street Studios, engineer Roy Ashby, all of the musicians, and to Archie. I am grateful to have this music at long last.

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 09:26 AM

Thanks for bringing this CD to my attention.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: Alio
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 09:30 AM

I love the "old" tracks which were recorded back in the 70's - in fact I've chosen one of them, The Final Trawl, to play on Sounds of Folk on Monday evening. It's an excellent album.

Ali

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: Effsee
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 09:30 AM

Also available in UK from Greentrax Records.

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: maeve
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 09:38 AM

Thanks Charley, and Alio- I'm glad you've chosen to include a cut on your show. That's great. Yes, Effsee, thanks for mentioning Greentrax. Ian Green always has wonderful music. He's done a lot to bring out good music and gifted musicians.

Still listening to it all.

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: maeve
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 10:00 AM

"Before Eternity"

That's the one I must sing first.

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: Barry Finn
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 10:05 AM

This is great, as is anything coming from Archie. Does this mean he may also consider touring to promote the CD. It's been to long since seeing him live tooooo.

Barry

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: maeve
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 10:22 AM

Archie tours in Canada for the most part, since our dear land is hard on visiting musicians. I'm looking into it and hoping, Barry. If anything seems likely I'll post it here.

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: maeve
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 10:54 AM

Just me again: I also must learn his version of Graham Miles' "Shepherd On the Hill"

maeve

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: nutty
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 12:21 PM

Just listened to some clips .... a definite "must have" for me

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: Willie-O
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 02:20 PM

"Archie tours in Canada for the most part, since our dear land is hard on visiting musicians"...which dear land is that then, dear?

I'm so happy to hear this. A few years back I had the great thrill of opening for Archie when he played Perth, ON. (and frankly, if he tours only in Canada, he needs to get out more, we haven't seen him since). The peak of my career. At that time, he had zero recorded product available for sale at his gigs. A friend of mine actually brought a bunch of Archie's old LP's for display in the foyer so it wouldn't seem so empty...oh my god, I have to go buy this right now!
Keep at it Archie. Thanks Maeve.

W-O
brimming over...

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: bankley
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 02:23 PM

there's something so soothing about Mr Archie's voice....

'Gunsmoke and Whiskey'....I suppose

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: SINSULL
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 04:54 PM

That Archie! LOL THanks Maeve.

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: maeve
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 08:06 AM

More information, here

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: Stewie
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 08:40 AM

'Ontario Dust' is as good as anything he has ever done. Important thoughts/images evoked so simply and effectively. Lovely!

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: maeve
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 08:47 AM

Yes, Stewie, I agree.

I'm glad some folks are pleased with the news of this new album. I was sure someone with more talent as reviewer would have started a thread, but I love the cd and the friend who made it and I couldn't wait any longer.

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: Art Thieme
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 03:08 PM

Stewie,

It's good to hear your cyber voice. We do seem to be here less than once we were. I had an interesting thing to occur today. We hit a pothole that was so deep that when we looked down in there, a family from Melbourne was way down in the bottom o' it having breakfast! They said they knew of you from Mudcat but they'd not ever got as far as your Darwin to meet ya in person. --- Surely, it's a shrinking world we inhabit these days.

All the best to you folks,
Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: black walnut
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 06:15 PM

We heard Archie Fisher in concert this week at the Celtic College in Goderich (Ontario, Canada - on the beautiful shore of Lake Huron) and he'll be singing this weekend at the Goderich Celtic Roots Festival, as well. He was magnificent, as always!

Click here for the Goderich Celtic Roots Festival.


~b.w.

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: maeve
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 06:52 PM

black walnut- If there was any way I could shoot up there to Goderich College this minute I'd be on the road now. I wish... That looks like a tremendous opportunity for anyone who loves the music. What a line-up!

Thanks for posting. I'm delighted you could hear and see Archie, even if I cannot.

maeve

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: Stewie
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 12:39 AM

Hi Art, likewise it is good to hear from you. I will PM you tomorrow.

Regards, Stewie.

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: karen k
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 10:57 AM

Thanks Maeve. Knew it was coming but didn't know it was out. First saw Archie about 1974 or 75 when Jean Redpath was teaching at Wesleyan in CT and brought him to play at the Sounding Board in Hartford. Subsequently got to know his sisters Ray and Cilla. Amazing family. Wonder how Ray is doing. I'll be getting this cd real soon.

karen kobela

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: maeve
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 12:44 PM

Hello, Karen. Ray is doing better.

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: karen k
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 08:45 PM

Thanks, Maeve. Very glad to hear that.

k

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: maeve
Date: 18 Aug 08 - 09:01 AM

I came across this additional review this morning.

http://www.musicscotland.com/acatalog/Archie_Fisher_-_Windward_Away_.html

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: KathWestra
Date: 18 Aug 08 - 03:00 PM

This has not been out of my CD player since I heard about it on Lester Simpson & Mick Peat's BBC Derby radio show, "Folkwaves," a few weeks ago. I ordered it from RedHouse immediately.

Agree about Ontario Dust. Great, evocative song. Not sure about the Graham Miles piece. Beautiful tune, and beautifully sung, but the words were a wee bit too depressing for my taste. Maeve, I'm with you about "Before Eternity." It's my kind of song. Maybe you can get the Quasimodal Chorus to do an arrangement? Otherwise I'm going to call you up and insist we harmonize on the phone, because it's the one I need to learn too.

Having worked with Archie 30 years ago, when I played cello on his Folk-Legacy LP, "Man With a Rhyme," I have long been an admirer of Archie's amazing musicianship and songwriting ability. This new CD is an extraordinary testament to both. Definitely worth waiting for.
Kathy

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: maeve
Date: 18 Aug 08 - 11:03 PM

Kath- Wonderful to see your post here! I'd love to do a choral arrangement and I'd love to sing it with you, preferably in person!
Stay in touch, eh?

When I hear or sing the Graham Miles piece, I don't find it depressing. The "Loneliness" refrain carries the alone yet not hopeless sense for me; kind of a shepherd's blues feel.

"Woke up this morning,
the sheep got lost today.
My lady Loneliness
Has carried me away.
I've got the shepherd blues...
Baa-aaa-aaad blues!"

I'm learning "Windward Away" too. I waited a long time to sing that one. Also "Every Man's Heart".

maeve

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: KathWestra
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 01:48 PM

Love the baa-aaa-aaad shepherd blues, Maeve! Thanks for the smile.

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: Irene M
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 03:08 PM

My copy arrived last week and is getting a hammering. I LOVE Ontario Dust. He has SO caught the limbo feeling when you get home from a long trip abroad. You are still in that way of living, "home" is unfamiliar and it's the wrong bloody time!
The older stuff sounds over-arranged in comparison to the new, but you would never know there 30 years between recordings of his voice.

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: MAG
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 11:15 AM

I agree the older stuff has some overproduction, but I am so glad to have a recording of "Joy of my Heart" finally. It is the loveliest song about home I have ever heard.

I picked up the CD this weekend after finding out here it existed.

Shepherd's Song is melancholy but is quite evocative.

Thanks for the heads up. The only time I heard ArchieFisher live was decades ago, with Garnet Rodgers at the good ol' OTSFM in Chicago. They had a good time with "Night Visiting Song" -- Garnet's standard joke about the speed bump.

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: maeve
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 11:25 AM

Ah yes, the "speed bump"/bundling joke. I remember it well!

Thanks for posting, MAG and IreneM and everyone else. I am glad you like the Shepherd song MAG, and delighted that several of us have bought the cd. The best way to get a Stateside tour is to show there's a good enough market. Buying this new album helps prove the point, so thanks to everyone who has shelled out the money.

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: Irene M
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 02:47 PM

Mag.
Archie and Garnet have a CD called "Off The Map", recorded live. Joy Of My Heart is on that.
Archie once said that someone asked him to sing "that song about Fair Fiona". Turns out they thought the words were "Sing me O the coolies of Skye, of haggis and egg and fair Fiona...."

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away' 2010
From: maeve
Date: 18 Dec 09 - 04:42 AM

As I promised Barry Finn...sigh... here is touring information for Archie. I encourage folks to ask their favorite venue to contact Wooden Ship Productions asap to ask about available dates. Contact information

********************************
Wooden Ship Productions is arranging a 2010 North American tour for the highly esteemed Archie Fisher. Dates listed on the website so far:

2010

February

5 Morristown, NJ The Minstrel

6 Harrisburgh, PA Susquehana Folk Music Society

10 Rolingsford, NH Elsyium Folk Arts

11 Voorehsville, NY Old Songs,

12   A Music For Robin Concert, ST John's Methodist Church, 80 Mt Auburn St, Watertown, MA, [phone], http://music-for-robin.org

13 Cumberland, RI Blackstone Theatre

14 Woods Holk Folk Soc, Woods Hole, MA

15 Carthage,ME Skye Theatre Maine

April

8 Wilmington, DE, Green Willow Folk Club

9 Baltimore, MD Uptown Concerts

10 Philadelphia, PA, Cross Currents

11 Toronto ON, Flying Cloud

14 Picton, ON Acoustic Grill

16 Lansing, MI, Ten Pound Fiddle,

17 Evanston,IL Hogeye Folk Arts

Tour dates from:
http://www.woodenshipproductions.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56&Itemid=58

**********************************
maeve

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: black walnut
Date: 18 Dec 09 - 03:53 PM

Thanks Maeve. I've put the Toronto date into my calendar.
~b.w.

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: Willie-O
Date: 20 Dec 09 - 12:49 PM

Thanks for the heads-up, Maeve.

Picton eh! Nice spot.

W-O

Subject: RE: Review: Archie Fisher 'Windward Away'
From: maeve
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 10:33 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: Review: 'Windward Away' (Archie Fisher)
From: maeve
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 01:45 PM

I see I misspelled Graeme Miles' name. My apology for the error.

Subject: RE: Review: 'Windward Away' (Archie Fisher)
From: GUEST,Dee Meier
Date: 28 Jan 13 - 05:26 PM

Does anyone know where I could get the chords / tab to: Shepherd on the Hill?

Subject: RE: Review: 'Windward Away' (Archie Fisher)
From: GUEST,999
Date: 28 Jan 13 - 06:18 PM

Done by who? Is it a song, a hymn, new, old, any other info?

Subject: RE: Review: 'Windward Away' (Archie Fisher)
From: maeve
Date: 28 Jan 13 - 06:30 PM

999-
"Shepherd on the Hill" is a Graeme Miles song sung by Archie Fisher on his "Windward Away" album reviewed herein. It may be in one of his songbooks, but to my sorrow I have not yet obtained any of them.

Subject: RE: Review: 'Windward Away' (Archie Fisher)
From: maeve
Date: 28 Jan 13 - 06:34 PM

There is some helpful information in this "Shepherd on the Hill" thread.

Subject: RE: Review: 'Windward Away' (Archie Fisher)
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Jan 13 - 06:43 PM

Thank you.

Subject: RE: Review: 'Windward Away' (Archie Fisher)
From: GUEST,999
Date: 28 Jan 13 - 07:09 PM

That was me.

Subject: RE: Review: 'Windward Away' (Archie Fisher)
From: GUEST,999
Date: 28 Jan 13 - 07:34 PM

Does anyone have any of the lyrics to 'Shepherd on the Hill'"

Subject: RE: Review: 'Windward Away' (Archie Fisher)
From: maeve
Date: 28 Jan 13 - 08:05 PM

Fortunately, yes we do. Click on the link I posted above at 6:34 tonight and you'll find them there, In addition, there are 'Catters posting in that thread, who have the songbook and/or who sing it, and may well be willing to help with chords or tab for the song.

I'd lend more of a hand but am submerged here.

Subject: RE: Review: 'Windward Away' (Archie Fisher)
From: maeve
Date: 30 Jan 13 - 06:48 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: Review: 'Windward Away' (Archie Fisher)
From: Bearheart
Date: 23 Nov 14 - 11:07 AM

Looking for more lyrics from this album, Maeve, but can't seem to find them. Ordered it from Red House after I saw him in Corning NY this fall. GREAT CONCERT.

Subject: RE: Review: 'Windward Away' (Archie Fisher)
From: maeve
Date: 23 Nov 14 - 11:23 AM

Bearheart, I'm glad you ordered the album- good choice! Send me a PM with information regarding lyrics you seek. I'll help if I can.

Maeve

Subject: RE: Review: 'Windward Away' (Archie Fisher)
From: GUEST,Susie
Date: 23 Nov 14 - 03:46 PM

Archie's playing the Llantrisant Folk Club on 29th July, 2015. I'd love to know where else he's playing on this tour. Anyone got any info?

Subject: RE: Review: 'Windward Away' (Archie Fisher)
From: maeve
Date: 23 Nov 14 - 04:13 PM

Robin at Wooden Ship Productions has listed a 2015 tour:
"Men At Words with Archie Fisher, James Keelaghan & Jez Lowe
...Three of the world's finest songwriters and most respected singers have decided to take their friendship on the road. Having come together for several years while on a cruise they found that their music has a great synergy. James has toured separately with Archie and Jez and when they again all found themselves staying in the same house last Fall the idea for the tour was born."http://woodenshipproductions.com/

Subject: RE: Review: 'Windward Away' (Archie Fisher)
From: Bearheart
Date: 28 Nov 14 - 12:15 AM

Thanks Maeve, for yours, I will be in touch, and also for the post about the tour with Jez and James-- have CDs but never heard either of them live... Sound like a great time!