Starbyrd - On The Other Side Of Mad

  by Malcolm Carter

published: 26 / 1 / 2005

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You wait ages for one to come along then two turn up together… Albums recreating the glorious 12 string jangle of the Byrds that is. That well known jingle jangle and Roger McGuinn’s distinctive tone have inspired countless bands over the last 40 odd years. One such band from the not so distant past was the Lears with their ‘The Story So Far…’ CD; which was a successful attempt to recreate the sounds of McGuinn and co. While there have been the odd songs dotted throughout numerous albums which have brought a smile to any Byrd fanatic it is rare to find an album where every single track recalls The Byrds at their peak. So it was a rare pleasure to find albums by the Byrds - inspired Starbyrd and The Spring Collection drop in the letter box the same day. The Spring Collection CD, basically one Joe Mendoza with a few assorted friends, is a fine, fine album of Mendoza originals plus a really inspired cover of Eric Clapton’s ‘Wonderful Tonight’ taken at a breathtaking pace and full of lovely jangling guitars. Wonderful, in fact. If that album had been the only one that day/week/month which was proudly showing it’s Rickenbackers on it’s sleeve it would have satisfied even the most jaded Byrds fan. But it had the misfortune to show up at the same time as the Starbyrd album which is not only the best ‘Byrds inspired’ album yet to see the light of day but it also ranks up there with the best of the former Byrds solo albums. It’s the equal of McGuinn’s ‘Back From Rio’ for sure. The band is a nucleus of German Horst-Peter Schmidt and Brit Graham Allman-Talbot who have also added Ritchie Dunlop to the ranks and a few friends who help out on extra guitars and vocals. The main members are also involved with other bands except Allman-Talbot who has a solo career; he has been making music heavily influence by McGuinn and George Harrison for many years under the name of Gat. But quite frankly, this album is just so good it’s going to take a while before I get round to checking out any previous work by these guys or digging deeper into their backgrounds. For now I don’t want anything other than to listen to this glorious recreation of the sound of one of pop music’s most important bands. It’s now become a cliché to add to any review where the bands show their influences so easily and proudly that they add something new to the sound. That’s already been said about Starbyrd in fact. The truth is they don’t add anything new. They’ve taken the sound of The Byrds and they’ve made a better job of it than any other band, at times even better than The Byrds did! Why should that be anything to be ashamed of? They are not a tribute band making sad cover versions of their heroes’ greatest hits. Starbyrd simply write outstanding songs which sound like the Byrds and there is nothing wrong with that. Having said that, there are, in fact, two cover versions on this album. The first one, a cover of the Travelling Wilburys ‘Handle With Care’ is the only disappointment on this album. Instrumentally it is fine. Those Rickenbackers jangle just as they should and if it was just an instrumental track it would have been a highlight on the album. Unfortunately the vocals let it down. The band wanted to make it sound like it would have if Roger McGuinn was in the Wilburys, and the guitars show that they have been successful in that task, but it’s the part Roy Orbison took in that song that lets this version down. It’s not clear if it is Schmidt or Talbot who tackles this part of the song but one can’t help remembering how Orbison handled these vocals and let’s face it who can match up to the great man? It’s a minor criticismTe other 16 songs are all first rate, and hearing Jamie Hoover’s take on ‘Handle With Care’ last year and with Hoover managing to make a better job of the song vocally doesn’t help, but the track would have been better here as an instrumental. The second cover song is actually a little known Roger and Camilla McGuinn composition which has the approval of the composers. ‘The Tears’ is apparently a song which McGuinn had made a rough demo of and had performed live a number of times but had never released it commercially. Starbyrd’s version is the first time the song has been officially released. Camilla McGuinn even adds some notes about the song in the CD’s booklet. Having the song endorsed by one of the co-writers must have been a highlight of the bands career. It’s impossible to pick out just one of the 15 original songs for attention. Each and every one is a minor classic. The band shows that they have a certain sense of humour when it comes to the fact that they sound so much like the Byrds. The song, ‘It’s Still Me’, takes the Byrds arrangement of ‘Mr Tambourine Man’, steals a few lines of the song’s melody and adds knowing lyrics like “ it’s a 12 string you can hear, just like McGuinnn’s done all these years but it’s me and HP (Horst Peter Schmidt) playing now, it’s still legal and allowed”. Or try “I’m so pleased that I can play just like my heroes used to do but you know that when I play it’s just for you” or even “ don’t wanna be McGuinn or Hillman but I’ll play like them if I can”. These guys know what they’re doing; they may not want to be known as the "new Byrds" but it’s unavoidable, they are just so good. I would have put money on the title track 'Starbyrd' being not only a McGuinn original but also as being performed by the Byrds. There are two versions of ‘Chasin’ Down The Sun’, a co-write by Schmidt and Gat with a ‘crazy hillbilly’ called Dave Lewis on the album, the first is exactly as you’d expect the countrified version of the Byrds to handle this truck driving song and the second version ‘(Still) Chasin’ Down The Sun’ has less jangle and is more rooted in that country sound. The song is proof that the band can tackle all facets of the Byrds sound with ease. If this album had dropped in my letter box when it was originally released in America last summer it would have been top of my best albums of 2004 list without a doubt. It puts all the other bands reaching for that Byrds sound well in the shade. Absolutely outstanding and highly recommended to anyone who just can’t get enough of that trademark Byrds jangle.

Track Listing:-

1 I Want You to Know
2 I Wanna Fly Away
3 It's Still Me
4 Starbyrd
5 Sick and Tired of You
6 Equal Minds
7 Hande With Care
8 Chasin Down the Sun
9 The Crown Prince and the King
10 Back to the Roots
11 Down By the River
12 Just a Little Closer
13 (Still) Chasin Down the Sun
14 Psychedelic Bridges
15 The Tears
16 Mauritius Moon
17 Road of Dreams

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