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The Incredible Return Of The String Band
The reunited band returns to the road for U.S. tour starting in Northampton, Mass., on September 22nd. They wend their way through New York’s Joe’s Pub September 24th and Philadelphia’s North Star the following evening. Things wrap at Oberlin, Ohio’s Dionysus Club before ISB head back to the U.K. for November.
The original lineup lasted from 1966 to 1974 and its album The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter reached the Top 5 on the British album chart, just behind The Beatles, Cream and The Rolling Stones.
According to the band, the album provided “hallucinatory clarity of childhood memories mingled with mythic tableaux and pantheistic prayers, all infused with the logic of dream.”
Or, as Plant said, the band was “an inspiration and a sign.” Lofty stuff, eh? ISB has defined itself as “cerebral, acoustic-based music.”
The original trio comprised fiddler Robin Williamson, banjoist Clive Palmer and guitarist Mike Heron. That nucleus reunited in 2000 and toured the U.K. The current lineup includes Heron and Palmer with female multi-instrumentalist / vocalist Fluff and one-time bassist Gavin Dickie.
The band wants to play some of its better-known music, including the opus “A Very Cellular Song.” Apparently, ISB was so prolific during the ’60s, fans never got to hear much other than the newest stuff.