Water Into Wine Band
LP: Harvest Time
Country: UK
Released: 1976
Style: Folk Rock, Prog Rock
Bill Thorp: violin, viola, piano, glockenspiel, voice
Ray Wright: acoustic and bass guitars, voice
Trevor Sandford: acoustic and bass guitars, voice
Peter McMunn: acoustic guitar, glockenspiel, voice
Special thanks:
Gari Williams: flute
George Caird: oboe
John Payne: clarinet
William Prince: horn
Jeremy Ward: bassoon
Much love to Judy Mackenzie (voice) and Dave Cooke (guitar) for their help on "Moonglow".
Recorded at Freerange Studios, London, June 1976.
Engineered by Laurie Dipple, produced by Water Into Wine Band.
Wind music by Bill Thorp, other arrangements by Water Into Wine Band.
Tracklist
A1 Wedding Song
A2 Waiting For Another Day
A3 Scottish Suite
A4 Patience (Is A Virtue)
A5 Moonglow
B1 Harvest Time
All rock influences were left behind for this privately-released and immensely rare follow-up to Hill Climbing, the band opting instead to explore folk and classical themes yet still within a solidly progressive framework. Opens with a pair of dreamy folk ballads, ‘Wedding Song’ (not the Stookey tune) and the stunningly beautiful ‘Waiting For Another Day’. Listening to Bill Thorp’s passionate violin here it’s easy to see why he was accepted into the London Symphony Orchestra (so I’ve read). The medley ‘Scottish Suite’ follows with some fine. (The Archivist, 4th edition by Ken Scott).
The band’s 1976 ultra-rare follow-up recording to their first album (Hill Climbing for Beginners), was only issued to fans who ordered it at one of the band’s last gigs. After many delays it was not issued until 1977. The group comprised Bill Thorp, Ray Wright, Pete McMunn, Trevor Sandford (voices and various instruments) together with Gari Williams (flute), George Caird (oboe), John Payne (clarinet), William Prince (horn) Jeremy Ward (bassoon) Dave Cooke (guitar) and Judy Mackenzie (vocals). The band was a quartet with a lineup of guitars, bass, violin, pianos, bongos and vocals. The band debuted in 1974 with their Hill Climbing For Beginners album. A pretty good acid folk rock album. The band operated in the Christian Jesus revolution scene in the 1970s and their debut album made some waves in that scene and in the secular folk rock scene too. Their US tour was a disaster and the band did not recover from that heavy blow. The remnants gathered for the final time and released Harvest Time. It is the final sign of life from this band. The music here is guitars, vocals and violin dominated folk music. There is no prog and hardly any rock either here. The violins are dominant here and adds some good stuff to this album. An album without any real good songs. A forty minutes long album. The origins of the Water Into Wine Band go back to 1971 at Cambridge University when students Trevor Sandford (vocals, guitar, bass), Peter McMunn (guitar), Ray Wright (guitar, bass, bongos) and Bill Thorp (violin, piano) met up and found they had mutual interests in theology and music. Although Christian bands such as Malcolm & Alwyn, the Glorylanders and Out Of Darkness were already laying the foundations of a Christian scene in the UK, the Water Into Wine Band didn't consider themselves a ministry group. In 1973 as well as the folk clubs Water Into Wine Band were beginning to play gigs in church halls and outreach events. In June 1976 the band decided to record second album. Booking into London's Freerange Studio the tracks on 'Harvest Time' were, if anything, even more ambitious and less "commercial" than its predecessor. There was an eight-minute plus "Scottish Suite" containing a medley of such traditional perennials as "Coming Through The Rye", the reel "Peter Gray" (expertly played by Bill Thorp), "Skye Boat Song" and "McPherson's Rant". The album also contained a highly tongue-in-cheek rendition of the Tin Pan Alley standard "Moonglow" with the group helped out by Judy Mackenzie (vocals) and Dave Cooke (guitar), the group having played some gigs with the Mackenzie/Cooke duo.
But by far the more ambitious number on 'Harvest Time' was the 18 minute plus title track. After a delicate orchestral introduction featuring George Caird on oboe, John Payne on clarinet, William Prince on horn and Jeremy Ward on bassoon, "Harvest Time" flows into a medieval-sounding Sandford/Thorp composition featuring the haunting refrain "Though the sower may be sad/Harvest time will make him glad". The song continues to build, the woodwind interweaving with Bill Thorp's elegant piano and then violin, acoustic guitar and woodwind swirl around to take the listener to the telling vocal climax "All that we need is a handful of seed/All that we want is to live/Won't you turn to the sower/Forget all your greed/Ask, and I know he will give". Today, the four original members still have some contact with each other and indeed haven't completely forgotten the days when they were long haired folkies.
