April 13: Cambridge: Alasdair Roberts + haeti...

props to the Decemberists for giving Ali the gig though!

LOVE THIS GUY

haha, he does seem like he'd be a fun guy to have a drink with -- from Freud’s “Royal road to the unconscious” to stuffed animals in Winnemucca, Nevada all in one breath ...

dude can discuss protolanguages
<3 <3 <3

The Hallucinator and the King of the Silver Ship of Time = kosmische folk

Dying to hear this ep. There remains so much to discover on Spoils though :)
Still hoping for some european dates...

sadly i just found this
Unfortunately, Bert is ill and his North American tour has been cancelled.

;_; for real

Spoils is totally killing me today. So excellent.
Reminds me that I need to buy the EP.

EP might be better than Spoils! So good.

Excellent picture of Alex Neilson on the back of it too!

Amber Gatherers really is a great record huh?

Cover artist on the current Wire. Photogenic chap.

love this guy.

will buy this "wire."

also he disappeared from facebook. i was enjoying his updates re. his recording.

Shot this with him the other day...

http://krakow.zenfolio.com/img/v5/p165744498-3.jpg

Plastic toy guitar jamz!

sadly i just found this
Unfortunately, Bert is ill and his North American tour has been cancelled.

;_; for real

― figgy pudding (La Lechera), Monday, August 3, 2009 4:47 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark

Bert is coming back to Chicago -- will AR be there too? Does anyone know? Venue is the same...fingers crossed!!

Bert Jansch is opening for Neil Young in May here in the southeast.

new record! looks like trad songs: http://www.dragcity.com/products/too-long-in-this-condition

oh and a free Ep too!
via Drag City:

ALASDAIR ROBERTS IS FREE

…free, that is, of the hang-ups and put-downs that come from selling music and making money from it. No, this time, you can have Alasdair’s music and it’s not even “up to you” to decide whether to pay a dime or not for it. This particular music was born free and that’s the way it’s staying, courtesy of Ayrtime. They sponser free shows too – but the inheritance has to run out sooner or later, right? Check it all out here while you can. http://www.ayrtime.org/roberts.html. Meanwhile, back in the world that we’ve known, the world that employs all of us down here in the ivory bunker to serve what we love (music, kids!), we’re preparing an Alasdair Roberts record for release on June 29th that will appeal to the old-fashioned among us, and not just because you need to pay money for it. No, Too Long In This Condition is a record of traditional songs that are hundreds if not thousands of years old when all placed end-to-end. Don’t forget, our Alasdair is a man deeply impressed by the intersecting belief systems and mythologies of the world. His last album, Spoils, put forth the proposition of syncretic contemporary folk rock – and quite successfully, we might add. For Too Long In This Condition, he’s once again working with a group of like-minded contemporaries to unravel the mystery behind the immemorial inclinations of our all-too-human race. In some ways it’s Alasdair at his most traddy with fiddles, harmony singers and a rich danceable beat; at other times, he’s at his most boldly forward with arrangements that couch the songs in the modern muddle, with the eerie sound of fingernails scraping at the coffin lids of the ageless dead. It’s too much to miss! Check out a representative sample of this album on this website right now.

oooooooooh! thanks for posting!
i found out that meg baird is opening for bert j. she's good, but i was disappointed.

Alasdair Roberts on the left, as you've probably never seen him before...

http://krakow.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v23/p8643616-3.jpg

It's dead clear when you compare it with your feb/2010 pic - only the toy guitar's missing ;)

Bought Too Long In This Condition a couple of weeks ago. Great great record. I love the sound of his voice. His friends are a nice bonus, too.

I thought his Archive Trails thing was fantastic, having seen the pretty serious-seeming preview event in Dundee I wasn't expecting it to be so funny.

listening to the forthcoming duets record w/ mairi morrison. not familiar w/ morrison, but it sounds lovely.

I STILL LOVE THIS GUY

Is the new one out yet? It says March on his website but I can't find it on the Drag City site.

http://www.dragcity.com/products/urstan

Haven't heard it - who is Mairi Morrison?

Oh good. Please pardon my inability to find that on my own.

Pardon granted, go in peace

Also
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckxTQP_90P0&feature=related

Didn't know about the collab LP, will definitely get it. Played Spoils in the car last week, what a fantastic album. Might be my favourite of his.

new one is pretty nice, just wrote about it over here - http://ow.ly/b4Gpc
lotsa gaelic, some very tricky tempos, beautiful harmonies.

Urstan is pretty good I think but the arrangements veer into jaunty world-trad territory too often for my liking.

yeah i see what you mean, there is something a little too straight ahead about it (at least compared to alasdair's previous work), but i've been enjoying it nonetheless.
new video here too : http://vimeo.com/41888766

i bought it after my ~dentist's appt~ today as a treat for surviving a filling
even if it's a little slick, it's still ali
also that woman is adorable!

ha yeah she is cute.
added isle of lewis to my places i need to visit list
http://www.scottishcaravanner.com/images/uploads/lewis.jpg

ok so this is not my favorite AR release, but it'll do. The songs where he's singing are less "adult world-trad" than Morrison's. I still think she's charming though. It's something you could put on when the parents come over?

I also picked up the Roberts-compiled Lomax recordings record because I am compelled to buy things like that whenever I see them.

new one!
http://www.dragcity.com/system/assets/files/1370/original/AlasdairRoberts_AWonderWorkingStone_MINI.jpg
In January 2013, Drag City Records will release the new album by Alasdair Roberts & Friends, entitled A Wonder Working Stone. A collection of varied new epics, Alasdair's latest is by turns metaphysical, cosmological, phantasmagorical, topical, personal and universal. This is Alasdair's most ambitious, fully-realized work to date (an extraordinary claim following the incredible excursions made on his recent releases Spoils and Too Long In This Condition). A Wonder Working Stone continues Alasdair's long-standing love affair and deeply creative interaction with the traditional music of has native Scotland (and beyond), offering an idiosyncratic and nuanced radicalization of that tradition. Indeed, he questions the very notion of 'tradition' in the modern age, with songs addressing topics such as mortality (as ever), life, love, sex, faith and history. There is a meditation on loss - the losing of self, of the music of the nation? - that is belied and ultimately denied by the lively nature of the work. The arrangements of A Wonder Working Stone are dense with the music of friends, realizing the lifeblood of community, and throughout the album, they are presented with raucously cinematic flair. In the middle of it all, Roberts delivers his unique 'scordatura' finger style guitar and distinctive tenor vocals with the backing of a core group of among Glasgow's finest musicians - Ben Reynolds (electric guitar), Shane Connolly (drums), Rafe Fitzpatrick (fiddle, rap), Stevie Jones (bass) and with special guest vocals from Olivia Chaney, as well as appearances from many other fine players on strings, brass, flute and accordion, all of which edify and expand the musical world of Alasdair Roberts and all those friends who listen.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!! I hear Alasdair Roberts batsignal and I rejoice!

FFFFFFFFFFantastic news. Great pic of him during a recent Glasgow festival performance in the latest Wire. I've yet to see him live, so I hope there's an accompanying tour for this album.

by turns metaphysical, cosmological, phantasmagorical, topical, personal and universal

yessss

best title so far - "the end of breeding"

FFFFFFFFFFantastic news. Great pic of him during a recent Glasgow festival performance in the latest Wire. I've yet to see him live, so I hope there's an accompanying tour for this album.

― willem, Wednesday, October 24, 2012 2:59 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

*Wiggles tie proudly*

You're organizing said tour?

;-)

i assume he took the picture!! now we need to get not_goodwin to catch a. roberts walking through the highlands with a deer or something. then i will have seen the photos i need to see, for now at least.

huh

From the circle and quaternity motif is derived the symbol of the geometrically formed crystal and the wonder-working stone. From here analogy formation leads on to the city, castle, church, house, and vessel. Another variant is the wheel (rota).The former motif Emphasize The ego's containment in the greater dimension of the self; The Latter Which Emphasize The rotation thus appears as a ritual circumambulation. Psychologically, it denotes concentration on and preoccupation with a center. Carl Gustav Jung , The Collected Works , Volume 9, pg.352.

I just took some simple photographs of Ali this morning ready for promoting the forthcoming album... A great pleasure as ever, even on a rather soggy Glasgow morning.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8061/8203424716_eb62a2c06b_z.jpg
Alasdair Roberts by Crimson Glow Photography, on Flickr

very nice. new album is sounding great, a lot to dig into as usual. any plans to come to the states?

I did ask him about touring and things and I believe he'd love to head to the USA if money allows, but I'm not sure that it does readily!

sooooo excited for new one
pre-ordered

shit-hot bass clarinet

or what is that?

the new album has so many saaaad songs on it! really beautiful.

i LOVE Farewell Sorrow. heard it for the first time this year. What else is as good as that album?

i'm a big fan of the Amber Gatherers, but it's a little peppier than Farewell Sorrow.

Just saw this, which I like a lot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBjGZTy6KME

i dig this new song! the drums are weird and i like them a lot, his voice sounds good too
also the album is called "pangs"!

https://soundcloud.com/drag-city/alasdair-roberts-the-downward-road

shit-hot guitar

― j., Tuesday, November 25, 2014 3:43 PM (two years ago)

One thing I will bleat, as they drag my sclerotic body from this rock, is why didn't I listen to more Alasdair Roberts?

What News? is quietly glorious.

https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2019/07/02/alasdair-roberts-the-evernew-tongue/

is that a lil shit-hot guitar playing i hear????

November 24: Cambridge: Alasdair Roberts + Rachel Watkins

Hadn't seen AR play in forever, it was a good time. Nagging feeling that I still prefer him singing traditional ballads vs original compositions.

just the opposite

I don’t care whether he’s singing originals or traditionals— he’s always engaging imo/ime!

now we need someone to hate them both

Audio transcription has been my sideline for over 20 years. Please get in touch if you have any audio for speedy, accurate and confidential transcription. My fingers are a blur... thanks. pic.twitter.com/k0cktMFg1n

— Alasdair Roberts (@AliRobertsMusic) March 16, 2020

aw <3
99% accuracy! if i had need for this i would totally hire him

New Alasdair Roberts out today... it sounds like Alasdair Roberts, which is fine by me.

Saw him in a tiny little pub on Thursday. Just him and his guitar. He did two sets. The first was all material from the new album (Scottish & Irish folk songs) and the second set was a selection from the last twenty years. I didn't recognise a bunch of what he played, but in that small, dark space, where you could hear the creak of customers as they moved around in the pub upstairs, it was a good time to be alive.

https://i.imgur.com/39xXldO.jpeg

"Coming this spring from Boatwhistle Books: 'Library of Aethers: Selected Lyrics 1994-2024'. Beautifully illustrated inside and out by Annabel Wright and featuring contributions from Robin Robertson, Rafe Fitzpatrick, Màiri Nic'IlleMhoire and Christopher Mack. Two launch events: GLASGOW Glad Cafe, Wed 17th April. LONDON Kings Place, Sun 21st April (4pm). London tickets available here: https://shop.kingsplace.co.uk/29933/29937";

https://www.facebook.com/alasdair.roberts.7/posts/pfbid07DpNRvuQszKQqKghFQYKut3o9799pZPonMLJ162V73iwpKLQeijeGasfNLSDW8hal

Love the cover art. This should be really interesting.