Marc Brierley - Welcome To The Citadel 1968

Although Marc Brierley had released an EP on Transatlantic in 1966, 1968's Welcome to the Citadel was the British folkie's first album. It was an accomplished yet rather bland work, built around Brierley's singing, songwriting, and acoustic guitar. But it was also pushed a little toward folk-rock and pop by the use of electric bass and drums (by Tony Reeves and Mike Travis, who'd just been touring with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers), as well as some cello, trumpet, and violins. It's on the mild and twee side of British folk-rock; Brierley's slight vocals and drifting compositional sense fall in the realm of other minor British singer/songwriters of the genre like Keith Christmas. Observational sketches like "Matchbox Men" and the title track have an attractive but forgettable baroque-folk flavor; other numbers like "Take Me for a Ride on Your Aeroplane" seem a little like forced attempts at getting an electric Bert Jansch-type sound; and more acoustic-based numbers mine the dreamy folk-pop espoused by numerous British troubadours from Donovan on down. It's a varied album, but you could get roughly similar stuff elsewhere by performers of far greater distinction. The entire album has been reissued on the Brierley compilation Autograph of Time, which also includes his second album (^1969's Hello), his 1966 EP, and couple of non-LP singles. AMG.

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Marc Brierley - Hello 1969

Marc Brierley's second album boasted considerably more color in the arrangements than his 1968 debut Welcome to the Citadel had. Perhaps the production input of Ashley Kozak, who had been Donovan's manager, helped move Brierley in the more melodic, accessible direction that characterized Donovan's brand of folk-rock. (For that matter, sidemen Harold McNair, on flute, and Tony Carr, on percussion, had played on some of Donovan's fine 1960s recordings.) Brierley's not a "Sunshine Superman," though, and while it marks an improvement from its predecessor, Hello is still pretty tame, unmemorably effusive period late-'60s British folk-pop/rock. The mood ranges from light bonhomie with a vaudevillian speckle ("Sunny Weather"), earnest flowery orchestrated folk-pop ("Lady of the Light" and "When Martha Comes"), and jazzy bossa nova ("Lookin' Around the Room") to more melancholy and acoustic material, the title track recalling both Donovan and Al Stewart. The net effect, however, is to remind you just how much better Donovan's records were, though this is superficially similar in some respects. AMG.

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