Ferrablog

But I've always been a big fan of Al Stewart, and now according to MusicTap, reissues of Year of the Cat and Time Passages, with bonus tracks, are due out April 27. Apparently he's working on a new album as well. Hope it's a bit better than the Down In The Cellar, perhaps the first-ever concept album about wine appreciation in rock history.

Many years ago, I belonged to an Al Stewart listserv. Al's lyrics tend toward historical themes (usually European history) and display a fair amount of intellect and wit, which is part of his (limited) appeal. Personally, even though I consider myself a person of moderately reasonable intellect, it was Al's melodic gifts that attracted me more to his music than, say, the minutiae of the French Revolution. Unfortunately, though, his listserv was comprised primarily of those who locked on to his lyrics to the exclusion of all else, and the amount of pseudo-intellectual posturing on the list became insufferable. As the great Canadian pop-rock band Sloan once sang, "it's not the band I hate/it's their fans." Truer words were never spoken.