Large As Life and Twice As Natural

Album Review

With the exception of 1964's Folk, Blues & Beyond, this is Graham's finest non-compilation album. It's also his most fully arranged and rock-influenced effort, with backing by a meaty ensemble featuring Danny Thompson (of Pentangle) on bass and British blues stalwarts Jon Hiseman and Dick Heckstall-Smith (Graham Bond, Colosseum) on drums and sax respectively. Even Graham's singing sounds better than usual. Graham offers some decent blues, but more interesting are his frequent excursions into raga folk-rock of sorts, especially on "Blue Raga" (learned from Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan). The raga-jazz interpretation of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now," which moves from meditative opening drones into a freewheeling explosion of modal folk-rock is one of the highlights of Graham's career on record and one of the best expressions of his ability to make a standard his own. [AG's 2008 reissue featured new album art and replaced "Beautiful City" with a rare, untitled track.]