originally published: 06/10/2023
British music legends Strawbs will release their new album The Magic Of It All on July 14, 2023. Recorded in Cape Town, the album features David Cousins, Blue Weaver, and John Ford from classic 1970’s line up joined by some of the finest musicians and singers in South Africa.
Strawbs were high in the charts with “Grave New World” and “Bursting At The Seams” 50 years ago which coincided with a pivotal moment in the struggle for freedom in South Africa, when students and workers launched a new wave of resistance against so-called “resettlement”. The resistance in South Africa identified with Strawbs songs, especially “Part Of The Union”, “Lay Down”, and “New World”.
The album will be available for purchase online on CD, digital download, and vinyl here.
Recognizing this, South Africa documentary maker, Niel van Deventer, approached David Cousins with the idea of producing a documentary about Strawbs and the band’s influence around the world. Niel wanted to film while new songs were being recorded in a Cape Town studio. David Cousins came up with a bunch of his finest songs; Blue Weaver flew over to produce the sessions and co- write some of the material, while John Ford joined in with his contribution to the songs from New York.
Featuring brand-new songs recorded at the Academy Of Sound Engineering in Cape Town, with engineer Peter Pearlson, who worked with Paul Simon when he was recording South African musicians for the “Graceland” album. The South African musicians on this album include Mauritz Lotz, Schalk Joubert, Kevin Gibson, Byron Abrahams, Simangele Mashazi, Marzia Barry and Luna Paige. Cathryn Craig and Nicole Tee joined the singers from the UK.
The documentary The Magic Of It All will be released July 14, 2023.
TRACK LISTING
1 Ready (We Are Ready)
2 The Magic of it All
3 All Along the Bay
4 Everybody Means Something to Someone
5 Our World
6 The Time Has Come (for Giving Back)
7 Slack Jaw Alice
8 Paris Nights
9 Wiser Now
10 The Lady of the Night
11 Christmas Ghosts
COLUMNS
Rock On! This Week's Sound Bites...4/17/25
"Good to talk to you man, a pleasure as always," began the very talented Dave Keyes as he enthusiastically discussed his upcoming area shows on April 17 at The Twisted Tail in Philadelphia and April 19 at The Lizzie Rose Music Room in Tuckerton, NJ. "We are looking forward to it, it's always a fun place to play and we always have a good time down there in Tuckerton. I'll have Chris Bergson on guitar, a wonderful singer named Ellis Hooks, John Conte is playing bass and Diego Voglino on drums. So, we have five of us and Chris, myself and Ellis split the vocal duties, we all have our own material that we'll be doing; some original stuff, Ellis sings some Sam Cooke stuff, he's kind of an older soul R&B kinda' guy so we mix it up and he's been doing some gigs with chris for quite a while. Chris's stuff is a little jazzier, mine is a little more Boogie Woogie oriented so we have a good time up there."
