Jack The Lad - Rough Diamonds (Reissue) (1975/2005)

This is the third album released by the Lindisfarne spin-off band that originally featured Ray Laidlaw, Rod Clements, and Simon Crowe. Clements was long gone by this point (leaving after the first album)and had been replaced by a couple of guys from the excellent obscure folk-rock band Hedgehog Pie. I have a reference book on British music, covering the mid 60's through the mid 70's that states Simon Crowe had left the band by this point and was replaced by Ray Jackson. This is NOT true. Crowe was still an active member of the band here. Lindisfarne's Ray Jackson does appear as a guest, playing harp on the opening cut, and he was the one that contributed the cover artwork. Basically, this album is a mixture of very catchy Lindisfarne-style sing-along folk songs and the traditional sounding heavy folk rock of the second album. IMHO the songwriting is some of their strongest, and the album comes very close to capturing the spirit of the first couple of Lindisfarne albums (after hearing this, you just can't help but compare the two bands). The producer for this album was Simon Nicol, and he did an excellent job blending these two styles of songwriting! I would recommend getting this, and "The Old Straight Track", as well as the excellent Alan Hull solo album "Pipedream" before you get any of the Lindisfarne Mk.II albums.~thirstymoon