All star producer Joe Boyd (Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, worked on A Clockwork Orange soundtrack) has assembled a suitably all star situation for his long-dreamt-of Nick Drake tribute compilation. Out April 15 in the UK on Navigator Records, Way to Blue: The Songs of Nick Drake features such names as Vashti Bunyan, Teddy Thompson, Robyn Hitchcock, Green Gartside (Scritti Politti), Lisa Hannigan, Scott Matthews, Krystle Warren, and Danny Thompson. It was recorded live in London and Melbourne.
In the years following Drake’s tragic death, Joe Boyd had wanted to put together a tribute album to the young man he had worked with so long ago. But he felt the only way to get this thing to really come together was to get all these amazing artists together at the same time for a week in a rural studio, where they’d back each other up and create an organic, cohesive album in the great indie rock tradition of the ol’ “I lived in my weird uncle’s cabin in the northwoods of Michigan for six months without any contact with the outside world except for this album I created and oh yeah now I can communicate by blinking with certain raccoons” album creation story, except way, way cooler. Alas, that apparently didn’t happen for whatever reason (I blame Bon Iver; I don’t know why, but I do) so instead, Boyd & Co. put on a series of concerts featuring the songs from Way to Blue on a couple different continents, and voila! Live recordings of an elite group of musicians working together in beautiful, soft, melancholy harmony. And no rabies.
Way to Blue tracklisting:
01. Luluc, “Things Behind the Sun”
02. Scott Matthews, “Place to Be”
03. Green Gartside, “Fruit Tree”
04. Shane Nicholson, “Poor Boy”
05. Krystle Warren, “Time Has Told Me”
06. Robyn Hitchcock, “Parasite”
07. Danny Thompson & Zoe Rahman, “One of These Things First”
08. Vashti Bunyan, “Which Will”
09. Lisa Hannigan, “Black-Eyed Dog”
10. Shane Nicholson, “Rider on the Wheel”
11. Teddy Thompson, “River Man”
12. Luluc & Lisa Hannigan, “Saturday Sun”
13. Scott Matthews, “When the Day Is Done”
14. Luluc, “Fly”
15. Teddy Thompson & Krystle Warren, “Pink Moon”
• Nick Drake: http://www.brytermusic.com
• Joe Boyd: http://www.joeboyd.co.uk
• Navigator: http://www.navigatorrecords.co.uk
More about: Nick Drake, Robyn Hitchcock, Vashti Bunyan
