Paul Brett - Stone Survivor - Anthology

by Andrew Twambley

published: 5 / 5 / 2021

Label: Cherry Red Records
Format: CD Box

Extensive four CD compilation from session musician and experimental guitarist Paul Brett

Review

Paul Brett is one of the UK's most unique musicians. He started playing electric lead guitar in the early 60's and played sessions on many groups and artists' hit records, also joining some of them for live tours and gigs. Cherry Red Records are paying tribute to Paul's extensive and varied genres of recorded music from the 60's until now, with the release of a four CD anthology packaged with a sixteen page booklet and which is entitled 'Stone Survivor'. This is a presentation like no other. It spans 55 years of one of the UK's top musician's work, covering multiple styles and genres and illustrating his beginnings and transformation from an electric session guitarist into being heralded as one if the best virtuoso twelve-string guitarists in the world. I would need a whole lot more space to properly review the 94 tracks in this set, and to justify the many styles on offer in this excellent collection It also contains several unreleased songs from Paul's previous bands 'Stone Survivor' contains tracks from SW4, The Union with Elmer Gantry, Tintern Abbey, Arthur Brown, Elmer Gantry's The Velvet Opera. It also features tracks from his own history with Paul Brett's Sage, Paul Brett with Violinist Mike Piggott, Paul and British twelve=string blues legend Johnny Joyce, There are also numbers from Paul's world acclaimed 'Earth Birth', the first suite for twelve-string guitar. This is followed, by his association with 'Tubular Bells' producer Tom Newman for the records 'Interlife', 'Eclipse' and 'Guitar Trek'. His Gold and Silver Award chart album 'Romantic Guitar' is also featured, plus many more highly stylised songs and instrumentals as the journey takes us through to more Paul Brett Sage line-ups. Finally, there are songs from Paul's latest offering 'The Raven' in which he has set to music the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe, 'The Raven' is a dark Gothic collection played using Paul's own specially designed range of guitars. To summarise, this is a great insight and journey, through the musical career to date of one of the UK's legendary guitarists/composers. To get this far, you truly have to be a stone survivor.

Track Listing:-

1 Bo Diddley
2 Shame, Shame, Shame
3 In the Midnight Hour
4 Shake
5 How Do I Feel Today
6 Do What You Must
7 Devil's Grip
8 Give Him a Flower
9 Volcano
10 Statesboro Blues
11 Raise the Light
12 Anna Dance Square
13 3D Mona Lisa
14 Trophies of War
15 The Tower
16 Cottage Made for Two
17 Good Old Fashioned Funky Kind of Music Winter
18 Written in Winter
19 Jubilation Foundry
20 Give a Little Something to the Ragman
21 Love Is a Four Letter Word
22 Ulysses the Traveller
23 Tuesday Evening
24 Custom Angel Man
25 Charlene
26 The Ant
27 Handful of Rain
28 The Spanish Main
29 Clocks
30 Soho Jack
31 Empty Dreams and Flying Machines
32 Strawberry Fields Forever (Live)
33 Medley (Live)
34 Phoenix Future
35 My Kind of Day
36 Catching Catfish
37 Christened By Fire
38 Alone in Space
39 Dance of the Dawn Herald
40 Interlife
41 Into Life
42 Eclipse
43 Overture for Decadence
44 Chaos
45 Alternative 12 String
46 The Bishop Went Down to Fulham
47 In Search of Aztecs
48 Hand-Built By Robots
49 Nights in White Satin
50 I Will Survive + 42 Others