c o n r a d

Mellow Candle were an Irish group, with an English folk-rock sound, who released one album and then disappeared due to lack of public response. Having gained greater appreciation among folk collectors over the intervening years, not only was this album was resurrected on CD, but another CD made up of previously unreleased recordings was also released. Sometimes justice is dealt out in retrospect, because Mellow Candle are a worthy band. Clodagh Simonds and Alison Williams share vocal duties, and work exceptionally well together. They are at their most reliable on slower songs, such as the wonderfully atmospheric "Reverend Sisters" or "Silver Song", but occasionally manage to pull out an exceptional performance on the more raucous songs, such as the final track, "Boulders on My Grave." The songwriting is very solid, and is, despite a number of fairly conventional songs, occasionally quite adventurous. Most songs are in a comfortable triple meter, but on a few tracks they jump from one time signature to the other with gay abandon. The compositions are approached with a sense of naïve adventure, and are played with such energy and clear enjoyment that on the odd occasion where they misstep, I find it quite easy to forgive them. While all the songs are of reasonable quality, there are a few which stand out for me. "Dan the Wing" is a song about an encounter with the spirit world in the great folk tradition, whose supernatural theme is accentuated by its shifting metre. "Reverend Sisters" is an example of a straightforward song written well; a piano with the sustain pedal down accompanies a simple yet haunting melody sung in close harmony. The closing "Boulders on My Grave" is the closest the band come to Irish folk, with its jig rhythm, and is a wonderful way to finish the album. Swaddling Songs was a slow grower for me. I never thought it was a bad album, but I did think it vastly overrated. There is, however, a lot to this album, and most of it fits so well that the depth and charm isn't obvious until after a number of listenings. Although Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention remain more essential examples of the British style of folk-rock to my way of thinking, Mellow Candle certainly aren't far behind, and are essential for those who consider themselves folk-rock fans. review by Conrad Leviston — 1-19-06 —

j o e

They were an Irish band from the post-psychedelic era that produced but this one album, which went sadly unacknowledged in its initial release. Over the years, though, Mellow Candle's sole LP garnered cult status, making it an eventual heavy hitter among British folk-rock collectors, who were content to pay considerable sums of money for mint copies, if the liner notes for the CD are to be believed. In any case, there are two reasons to get Swaddling Songs, neither of them inconsiderable. The first of these are the vocal talents of Alison Williams and Clodagh Simonds, who were apparently schoolmates before forming the band. Williams' mellifluous vocals were perfectly complemented by Simonds, whose voice had more bite to it. Between the two, Swaddling Songs is rich in varied and often subtle vocal interplay. On the ballads, Williams takes the lead, her voice exhilarating in its openness on the lovely "Messenger Birds" and gently rocking back and forth between dark and light chords in "Sheep Season." For the more aggressive tunes, often barreling into furious Irish vocalise passages halfway through, Simonds' tarter voice generally provides the lower melody line as a foundation, while Williams provides a higher harmony (e.g., "The Poet and the Witch," "Dan the Wing"). However, this need not be the case. For example, on "Break Your Token," it is the same positioning, but with Williams as identified lead. On the album's deliciously manic closer, "Boulders on My Grave," the positions reverse, with Williams taking the lower register and Simonds the higher. Then there's "Buy or Beware," which opens with a melodic line by Williams, answered by a counter-melody by Simonds, answered by Williams again; they then switch places for the next chorus (October Project used this same form of vocal alternation to effect with "Take Me As I Am"). They might uniformly sing a melodic line throughout the whole song (e.g., "Reverend Sisters", "Lonely Man"), but just as often their vocals will diverge, coiling around each other or where the uniform melody should be, only to meet up again. The second reason to get this album is the exceptional quality of the songs themselves. The lyrics marry the mystical imagery of the period with that of the Catholic upbringing of the band, and the music is loaded with catchy melodies, offbeat rhythms, and unexpected accentuation. As a brief example, I again think of "Buy or Beware," where the opening line flows seamlessly from 4/4 -> 3/4 -> 5/8 with no sense of contrivance, only to be broken off by an unexpectedly longer counter-melody. Simonds, who wrote a majority of the songs, displays considerable imagination and dexterity on keyboards, and the rest of the band is always lock-step alongside her. Mellow Candle covers both ballad and rock domains equally well, and Swaddling Songs has some indispensable material. For me, that would especially be "Sheep Season," "Silver Song," "Messenger Birds," "Reverend Sisters," "Break Your Token," and "Buy or Beware." Really, though, there are no weak songs on this one at all. In some respects, Swaddling Songs reminds me strongly of Yes' debut album. Here you had a band displaying a prodigious degree of natural talent for songwriting, harmonizing, and arrangement. However, there is also a raw, energetic, and unpolished quality to the album, as this was an album obviously made from a band whose musicians must have been in their late teens. The vocals are occasionally overeager and strained, and the production value was on the lower end of the scale. So, listening to this I often wonder what Mellow Candle would have produced if fate had let them stick around longer, with their sound becoming more mature and refined and with a bigger budget. Would they have made another Close to the Edge? But this wasn't to be, and the band did not get to make further albums. Simonds, having the highest post-M.C. profile, has since appeared as a vocalist on a number of Mike Oldfield's works. Drummer Murray died in 1998, while Alison Williams (now O'Donnell) performs in a band called Eishtlinn. When I first bought this album, I thought it was simply decent. But over the years, with increasing plays it has forcefully made my ears stand up and take notice. Though usually filed under folk-rock, I think of this more in terms of deftly crafted early 70s UK pop with considerable appeal to prog fans. Whatever label you put on it, this is a fantastic album that deserves new discovery. review by Joe McGlinchey — 2-8-03 —