The Works | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1996 / 7 September 1998 (See Release date section) | |||
Recorded | 1998 or 1989 | |||
Genre | ||||
Label | HTD | |||
Phil Beer chronology | ||||
|
The Works was Phil Beer's third studio album, believed to have been released in 1998 (though some sources suggest earlier copies may have been released in 1996 [1] ) by HTD, who also released his previous album Hard Hats . It features instrumentals. [2]
The entire album was re-released as CD2 of Hard Works in 2008. [3] This compilation stated the album was from 1989 when he was touring with The Rolling Stones in the Steel Wheels era. This was confusing as the album seems to be released on 7 September 1998, and sources such as Allmusic [4] even state so. It is possible that the 1998 release date marks a re-issue. Some sources suggest a release of the album occurred in 1996, this seems to lean more credence to the notion that the 1998 release date marks a re-issue.
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
The Living Tradition | (favourable) [5] |
The Living Tradition said The Works was a "good showcase" for Beer's talents: "Phil is not an acoustic fiddle player as everything is pre-amped to get the sound he wants. In fact he has recorded this himself. There's a good mix of tunes, some traditional, some written by Phil himself, going back some twenty years." [5]
In Hard Works , the album remains intact but every two separate tracks from the original appears as one track on Hard Works, three tracks of Hard Works even contains what was three separate tracks in The Works. This totals 10 tracks.
Altan are an Irish folk music band formed in County Donegal in 1987 by lead vocalist Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and her husband Frankie Kennedy. The group were primarily influenced by traditional Irish language songs from Donegal and have sold over a million records.
Fisherman's Blues is a 1988 album by The Waterboys. The album marked a change in the band's sound, with them abandoning their earlier grandiose rock sound for a mixture of traditional Irish music, traditional Scottish music, country music, and rock and roll. Critics were divided on its release with some disappointed at the change of direction and others ranking it among The Waterboys' best work. The album was the Waterboys' best selling album, reaching a number 13 placing on the U.K. charts on release, and 76 on the Billboard 200.
Red Roses for Me is the debut studio album by the London-based band The Pogues, released on 15 October 1984.
Culann's Hounds are a traditional Irish folk band from San Francisco, California, United States. Founded in 1999 by Steve Gardner and Michael Kelleher as The Irish Bastards, the band began playing gigs and soon adopted the more broadly appealing name.
Phil Beer is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and one half of English acoustic roots duo Show of Hands.
Country Life is the eleventh studio album by English acoustic roots duo Show of Hands. Released in 2003, it marks a departure for the band, with stronger socially and politically lyrics than the duo's previous albums, as well as showcasing the duo exploring a larger musical palette. Some of the album's lyrics concern rural issues which Knightley had taken to heart in previous years, including in the aftermath of their previous lyrical album Cold Frontier (2001). Prior to the release of Country Life, the duo had released an instrumental album named The Path. Both The Path and Country Life were released close together. The album was packaged in a lavish set which included a bonus disc of demo versions and other bonus material. The album's title track was also promoted by the band's first music video.
The Path is the tenth studio album by English acoustic roots duo Show of Hands, released in April 2003. The album was conceived as an "instrumental journey" around the South West Coast Path, a 630-mile coastline path opened in 1978 in the duo's native West Country, and a celebration of the coastline's "sights and sounds". It is the band's only completely instrumental album, with each of its songs named after and inspired by different locations on the path. It was a project between Show Of Hands and The South West Coast Path Team, as part of the latter's celebrations for the silver jubilee of the path. As such the album is endorsed by various organisations who own different parts of the path, namely The Countryside Agency, The National Trust and English Heritage Commission,.and the music is ambient instrumentals inspired by different locations around the coastline.
Strict Tempo! is an instrumental album by Richard Thompson released in 1981. Although the album is technically Thompson's second studio album, it is typically not referred to as such, with its follow-up Hand of Kindness usually receiving that label and the numbering of his discography continuing from there.
Dervish is an Irish traditional music group from County Sligo, Ireland which has been described by BBC Radio 3 as "an icon of Irish music". They were formed in 1989 by Liam Kelly, Shane Mitchell, Martin McGinley, Brian McDonagh, and Michael Holmes and have been fronted by singer Cathy Jordan since 1991. They represented Ireland in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, singing a song written by John Waters and Tommy Moran. In 2019 they released an album on the US Rounder Records label called The Great Irish Song Book featuring a selection of classic Irish songs sung by a number of well known singers including Steve Earle, Andrea Corr, Vince Gill, Kate Rusby, Imelda May, Rhiannon Giddens, The Steel Drivers, Brendan Gleeson, Abigail Washburn, and Jamey Johnson. In 2019 they received a lifetime achievement award from the BBC.
As You Were is the fourth live album by English acoustic roots duo Show of Hands. Following the release of their acclaimed tenth studio album Country Life in 2003, which itself was promoted by a tour, the duo were named the "Best Live Act" at the 2004 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. The live interest in the duo ultimately lead to a greater interest when the band announced their Autumn Tour 2004. The tour itself ran from November–December and included Miranda Sykes as a collaborator, her first collaboration with the duo. With the band's producer and engineer of the era Mick Dolan, the entire tour was recorded onto MiniDisc, with the duo subsequently ploughing through each concert recording the following day to identify the best performances and then collating and working through the "A list again" to find the best tracks to create the live album.
The Voice of the People is an anthology of folk songs produced by Topic Records containing recordings of traditional singers and musicians from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Finbarr Dwyer was a traditional Irish accordion player from the famed Dwyer musical family. He was born in Castletownbere, Co. Cork on 20 September 1946, began playing accordion at the age of three, and began composing at the age of nine. Both of his parents played accordion and his father also played fiddle. His brothers Richard and Michael likewise played accordion, while his brother John, born in 1933, played fiddle. In 1969 he won the All-England accordion title. He died on 8 February 2014, in Mallow, Co. Cork, Ireland.
Gypsy Fly is an American punk rock band formed in Carol Stream, Illinois, in 1998. Although the band was named after Jimi Hendrix and Curtis Mayfield references, the band's music does not bear a resemblance to either icon. Instead, Gypsy Fly's music has been described as “an undeniably catchy mix of metal and pop punk.”
Once in a Blue Moon is an album by the Phil Beer Band released in 2001. It is their latest recorded album using this band name.
Hard Works is a compilation album by Phil Beer released 20 November 2000 and again on 15 December 2008 with a different cover, the album aims at collecting all the tracks from Hard Hats and The Works.
The Fiddle Collection is a studio album with tracks from various British fiddle players produced by Phil Beer. Released in 1999, it was Beer's first solo project of the year during his temporary break from Show of Hands. Promoted with the tagline "this really is modern folk music", it featured fifteen different, original tracks by different UK violin-playing folk musicians, and was designed to represent the fiddle and folk scene in the United Kingdom.
Tall Ships is the second album by Show of Hands, released in 1990 on cassette only. It contains the band's 22 minute medley "Tall Ships". Songs from the album appear on Backlog 1987-1991, a 1995 album containing songs from the band's earlier material for the first time on CD. This was due to Tall Ships going out of print later in 1990.
Adventures in Jazz is an album by the Stan Kenton Orchestra, recorded in late 1961 but not released until about a year later in November 1962. The album won a Grammy Award in the category for Best Jazz Performance – Large Group (Instrumental) category in 1963. This would be Kenton's second Grammy honor in as many years with the first being Kenton's West Side Story winning the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 1962. Adventures In Jazz was also nominated for Best Engineered recording for the 1963 Grammys. The 1999 CD re-issue of Adventures In Jazz is augmented with two alternate takes from the original recording sessions and one track from Kenton's release Sophisticated Approach.
The Widening Gyre is the twelfth studio album by Irish folk music group Altan and their eleventh studio album of original material, released in February 2015 on the Compass Records label. It was released to critical acclaim.
Between the Jigs and the Reels: A Retrospective is a two-disc anthology by the Irish folk band Planxty. It includes a 17-track CD and a 36-track DVD with over two hours of previously unreleased footage (1972–1982) from RTÉ archives.