Meet Friends Of Bob For His Final Salute...

The post of the latest volume of All Pears No Swine this week, including Marlon Williams' fab cover of Bob Carpenter's "Silent Passage" reminded me of some unfinished business. Both when I posted his fabulous and unfortunately only album and then an imagines follow-up I maintained that there was more Carpenter-related material in the vaults for the (too few) converted. Well, here it is, I'm cleaning out my closet. And what I found in it, is a couple of Bob Capenter's very good friends. The reason they all got together was of course a sad one: By the mid-90s Carpenter had more or less wrapped up with the music business and was preparing to become a monk (!), when a cancer diagnosis hit.

I'll be honest with you, I don't recognize a single name on the list of performers here, these are literally his friends, not some more or less well-known admirers of his work rallied to the cause. But that doesn't change the fact that the music in here is very good, both because of the quality of composition courtesy of Mr. Carpenter, but also because musical director Ken Daiglish has assembled a really nice band and group of lead vocalists, including horns and strings sections. If eclectic folk-rock is your gig, then meet Bob's friends. The set list is interesting, as it shies away from his (relatively) known songs like "Gypsy Boy" or "Silent Passage", instead there are several unreleased or rare numbers. Of the lead vocalists, I feel like I should mention Laura Hogan, who makes "Dance The Night Away" sound like a long lost Linda Ronstadt song. Another Highlight is "One More Time" with its acapella opening, before thebband comes in for the chorus. Don Le Roux and the band  bring some Dr. John-style Soutthern fried R'n'B on "Free Delivery Man". And for the suitable epic finale, all ride out on the "Morning Train", which here takes on the quality of a modern gospel. 

The artwork all came with the tracks, which Bob's friends are still distributing via a Facebook page (move over, Boomers!). I just added a couple of bonus tracks, Again, for such a little-known cult figure like Bob Carpenter, there weren't eactly dozens of covers from high profile artists to choose from. Marlon Williams shows up again, with a different version of "Silent Passage", which was actually the first version I heard of him doing that song. It's a live track cut in a moving tramway, with Williams accompanied by then girlfriend & musical partner Aldous Harding. Her beuatiful backing vocals and Williams' fragility make this version as good as the studio version. Ramblin' Wayn is a grizzled old musician doing covers on You Tube, I edited his two Carpenter covers into a medley. If you  listen closely, he sounds a lot like American Recordings Johnny Cash, circa Volumes 3 and 4. And then there is electro-folk (is that a gere?) group C.A.T., a bunch of fellow Canucks covering "Wings". 

There is a breadth of styles on display here on Bob's Benefit that show how eclectic Carpenter could be, instead of being just asddled with a'another guy with an acustic guitar' label, and its also a credit to the band assembked here who pull off a beautiful concert for a wonderful artist. 

So, one more time, one last time, immerse yourself in the music of Bob Carpenter.