ArtistRack brings to you ‘Into The Summer Groves’ by Robert James Selby:
In such gloom and doom times, a song to lift the spirits by Robert James Selby
Extracts from media reviews….
For no reason that you can actually pinpoint the work of early Marc Bolan (especially, although Bolan had yet to find his talent for writing catchy tunes back in his troubadour days), Wreckless Eric, Friends Again and Orange Juice loom heavily over many of his original songs by Selby. But there are enough little twists and turns scattered through each song to make them essential listening. It’s certainly not a case of ‘heard it all before’.
A bard with a heart, Robert Selby resurrects England’s lost folk tales in solo song, as he previously did with his band the Penny Ballads. His songs are Coleridge tales brought to life, Yeats poems re-enacted, his phrasing up akin to his inspirations: Dylan, Young, Reed and the rest, but his attitude chiming in with that of the post-Libertine generation. A travelling troubadour for the 21st Century. Authentically counter-culture in an age of Starbucks-sponsored songwriter mediocrity.
