STRAWBS SETTLEMENT
Music television history is loaded with moments that, for those who witnessed them firsthand, are unlikely ever to be forgotten. No matter how hard you try. Bluesy old Rod Stewart turning out in skintight trousers and a Vaudeville vixen’s cosmetics tray. Todd Rundgren on The Midnight Special at the height of glam rock, decked out like a pantomime Christmas tree. And, for British viewers of a similar vintage, the Strawbs on Top of the Pops, strumming through the gentle “Lay Down.”
Um, was that blue eye shadow?
Dave Cousins’ face drops. “If I regret anything,” he says slowly, “it was the blue eye shadow. It should have been green; it would have matched the eyes.” And then he suggests we change the subject.
Phooey.
The Strawbs have a new album out. Settlement is their 25th studio set, although there are a bunch of live albums, too, and more compilations than you can shake a stick at. To which we can also add two albums by the Strawberry Hill Boys — one with Steve Benbow in 1965, Songs of Ireland, and one with Sandy Denny, around the time the band shortened their name, All Our Own Work. Which is quite a catalog considering the band was effectively on hiatus for 20-some years as well.
It’s an organic process. Whereas once, the band — like every other — made albums according to a contracted schedule, these days, says Cousins, “We make albums when the opportunity arrives.” , however, is the product of a perfect storm of circumstance — the pandemic,
