Gold Dust: Live At The Royalty Theater [Live]

Gold Dust: Live At The Royalty Theater [Live]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Such a voice: warm, inviting, and mysterious, like a lamp glowing in some dark, distant window. When Sandy Denny died in 1978, she left unfinished one of the most intriguing chapters in the history of rock & roll and folk music. This concert, recorded five months before her death, is a suggestion of all the power her voice and vision promised and a picture of Denny at her musical and vocal peak. While her final studio albums for Island possessed fine songs, the production and arrangements were mostly unfocused. But on this night in London, everything falls into place. Denny's vocals are expressive, verging into jazz complexity; the band, including the remarkable Dave Mattacks on drums, Pat Donaldson on bass, Pete Wilsher on pedal steel, and Trevor Lucas and Jerry Donahue on guitars, is sympathetic and rocks when necessary. And the set list features the cream of Denny's compositions. Quite simply one of the most exciting records of the year. --Roy Kasten

Entertainment Weekly
[Denny's] husky, barleycorn voice still sounds luminous, and the tracks include some of her most heavyhearted ballads....

Tracks:

I Wish I Was A Fool For You (For Shame For Doing Wrong)
Stranger To Himself
I'm A Dreamer
Take Me Away
Nothing More
The Sea
The Lady
Gold Dust
Solo
John The Gun
I'll Take A Long Time
Wretched Wilbur
Tomorrow Is A Long Time
The North Star Grassman
One More Chance
No More Sad Refrains
Who Knows Where The Time Goes

Amazon.com

Such a voice: warm, inviting, and mysterious, like a lamp glowing in some dark, distant window. When Sandy Denny died in 1978, she left unfinished one of the most intriguing chapters in the history of rock & roll and folk music. This concert, recorded five months before her death, is a suggestion of all the power her voice and vision promised and a picture of Denny at her musical and vocal peak. While her final studio albums for Island possessed fine songs, the production and arrangements were mostly unfocused. But on this night in London, everything falls into place. Denny's vocals are expressive, verging into jazz complexity; the band, including the remarkable Dave Mattacks on drums, Pat Donaldson on bass, Pete Wilsher on pedal steel, and Trevor Lucas and Jerry Donahue on guitars, is sympathetic and rocks when necessary. And the set list features the cream of Denny's compositions. Quite simply one of the most exciting records of the year. --Roy Kasten

Customer Reviews:

I Had No Thoughts Of Flaws.......2005-07-03

Obviously, as you can gather from the other reviews here, some major reconstructive studio and electronic magic had to be conjured to even bring this concert to us at all. When you add in the caveats about Sandy battling a bad cold and a failing marriage (and a complaint I heard elsewhere about her chain smoking already starting to do to her voice what Joni Mitchell has lived long enough to do to hers), it's a wonder this is even listenable. And yet I think it is a triumph and I would hardly have noticed it's shortcomings unless someone had gone to great lengths to point them out to me. I'm old enough to remember when live performances by most of your favorite bands or artists usually sounded absolutely awful in person and even worse on tape or vinyl. I once tried recording gigs for a rock band in Austin--a likely deservedly long forgotten and unlamented group whose major distinction was that their biggest competition for work was from Stevie Ray Vaughan and his brother--in the very early 1970's using a 2-track Radio Shack 909A reel-to-reel tape recorder, and had more luck than most major bands had during the same years. So I've never expected live recordings to be anything but fraught with glitches and sub-par performance, muffed notes, etc. But if the essence of the artist was strong enough, even those poor quality recordings could be transfixing, and this concert is, at least to me, one such performance, and the problems with it minor compared to what we get from it--a portrait of one of the best singer-songwriters of our times, who voice even when ravaged could melt your heart effortlessly. The fact that it sounds halfway decent is just pure gravy. As a long time fan of Sandy's I can only be humbly thankful to the people who managed to bring us this recording, and even more grateful that is sounds as good as it does. Their work honors hers.

Great Concert!.......2004-06-01

This concert turned out to be Sandy Denny`s last. This fact might make it quite sad to listen to it, but fortunately the music is so great that you forget the sadness, and remember Sandy for the great music she created, as a singer and composer. The fact that the CD has been released is a small miracle in itself; Sandy`s voice was not in the best condition, as she had caught a cold during the tour; so the tapes had been shelved for years. When the release of the concert was reconsidered, the tapes were in bad condition, but fortunately they were restored; and the result is really magnificent. Even though her voice is not in optimal condition, she is still great; and the band is terrific.

The concert covers her career from her early masterpiece "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" till her final album "Rendezvous" from 1977. Most of her classic songs are here; some of the performances are maybe even better than the studio versions.

My favourites are "I`m a Dreamer", "Take Me Away", "It`ll Take a Long Time", "Solo", "Tomorrow is a Long Time", "One More Chance" and "No More Sad Refrains"-

Still an excellent album, despite some recording anomalies.......2002-06-29

I was surprised to learn only after several listens that there had been serious problems with the master tapes of this concert. I had noticed that some of the vocals on a song or two were not as loud and clear as they could have been, and the ending to "Take Me Away" stumbles, but other than that, it's not easy to spot problems. Since there isn't a lot of live Sandy Denny material available to begin with, I'd recommend this CD without hesitation. Despite the conditions described by other reviewers under which this recording was made, it is still immensely enjoyable as an album and I've listened to it as much as the Fairport albums and her box set. The band sounds great. And considering the high price of imports, the unavailability of much of Sandy's material in the USA, and the low price of this album, I would say if you already like Sandy, you can't go wrong with this album. I have to wonder what a live recording from more favorable conditions would have yielded, but it might have been a classic.

Still an excellent album, despite some recording anomalies.......2002-06-29

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