Plainsong

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Plainsong

Wednesday, Sept. 14, High Noon Saloon, 7 pm

Plainsong has been an on-again-off-again all-star aggregation since the early ‘70s, anchored by British singer-songwriters Iain Matthews (an early member of Fairport Convention) and Andy Roberts (of ‘60s art-punk progenitors Liverpool Scene). The duo is doing a brief acoustic tour in the U.S. this fall following up on the release of a Richard Farina tribute album. They will be playing both songs by Farina and from the Plainsong catalog.

$17 ($15 adv.). press release: The UK based band Plainsong, who released only one album before their initial break up forty-four years ago, will make their second U.S. tour in September of this year. The tour includes a stop on Wednesday, Sept. 14, at High Noon Saloon. Note showtime has moved back to 7 pm.

The dates will support their new release, Reinventing Richard: The Songs of Richard Farina. On this tour, Plainsong is Iain Matthews and Andy Roberts, the nucleus of the original band, presenting their songs acoustically. They will perform selections from the Farina recording as well as tunes from the Plainsong catalogue.

Plainsong was formed in 1972 by Matthews, formerly of  legendary Fairport Convention and Matthews Southern Comfort ( who had a world wide hit with “Woodstock”) and Andy Roberts, who has played with Roy Harper, Pink Floyd and legendary '60s band, The Liverpool Scene.

The original group split up before the end of 1972 but, since the early 1990s, Matthews and Roberts reformed Plainsong by adding songwriter Julian Dawson and multi-instrumentalist Mark Griffiths (Every Brothers, Cliff Richard’s Shadows and Al Stewart). In 2015, reduced to a trio, they decided to pay homage to the legendary Richard Farina. Reinventing Richard: The Songs of Richard Farina was released on Omnivore Records. “We’ve attempted to conceptualize how his songs might have sounded, if written and first recorded in a 21st century electro/acoustic setting,” Matthews wrote in the album’s liner notes.

April this year marks the 50th anniversary of Farina’s death in a motorcycle accident. He is largely remembered for two albums recorded with his wife Mimi (younger sister of Joan Baez) including Celebrations for a Grey Day (1965), chosen by Robert Shelton of The New York Times as one of the ten best folk albums of that year, and Reflections in a Crystal Wind (1965). Farina’s debut novel Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me was published in 1966.