Mad As The Mist And Snow by Kenny Craddock.

It is Sunday morning and I have been listening to an album called Mad As The Mist And Snow by Kenny Craddock. A friend of mine sent me it a couple of years ago. I think he thought I would find it interesting because of the Van Morrison connection. Kenny played keyboards and piano with Van in the early 80’s and replaced Pee Wee Ellis as Van’s band-leader. Kenny’s Van connection is best known for him writing the music for Before The World Was Made based on a W.B Yeats poem which Van recorded for his Too Long In Exile album of 1983. I was just reading a 1997 interview with Kenny and he spoke very highly of his time working with Van. The title of this album also comes from a Yeats poem. After 30 years in the music business and working with the likes of George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Lindisfarne, Paul Brady, Van and many others it was Kenny’s first solo album. Sadly, shortly after recording it he was killed in a car crash in Portugal in 2002 at the age of 52.

Kenny was a multi-instrumentalist. On the album he plays Acoustic & electric guitars, accordion, mandolin, piano, Hammond organ, bouzouki, and ukelele. On the opening track One Way Traffic the accordion is very much to the fore. Man Like Me features the saxophone and the backing vocal refrain of You’re driving me crazy reminds me a little of The Temperance Seven. Van as you know recently also made an album of that title. The third song Watcher On The Hill features very nice vocals by Lliane Carroll. Battle Song is quite an epic song which begins with some great guitar play. The lyrics written by Laurence Bristow-Smith are very profound and atmospheric as well. The title track is next and divided into Parts 1 & 2. The first part is quite a big jazzy arrangement and quite short. Mad As The Mist And Snow, Part 2 is the highlight of the album in my opinion. The percussion playing of Nana Tsiboe gives it an eerie Celtic sound which is enhanced by the saxophone of Tony Rico and Lliane's vocals. Coupled with the words by Yeats interpreted by Kenny this is seven minutes of brilliance. There was a great compilation album released many years ago in the 90’s of Yeats poems set to music called Now And In Time To Be and I think this track would have deserved to have been on it if it had been recorded earlier.

Stealing Time is another great Bluesy track which again features accordion and harmonica playing by Jem Turpin. Folded is a slow Blues ballad of betrayal featuring great guitar playing. Tiger Lilies At Pearl Lake has some esoteric lyrics by Pound/Gardner who wrote the words to most of the songs. I googled Pearl Lake to find out where it is and there is a lake in Herefordshire by that name although there may be others I suppose. The final track is Shore Bride and Kenny’s wife Julia Robinson is credited on vocals. This track really shows Kenny’s prowess on the keyboards and piano. I have enjoyed spending a very pleasant hour listening to this album today, especially Part 2 of the title track.