It All Comes Back

With Tudor Lodge's Vertigo label debut rightly acclaimed among the most exquisite jewels of the early-'70s progressive folk movement, it was always a major cause of frustration that that was all there was. No follow-up album, no circulating outtakes -- what you saw was all you got, and Tudor Lodge ascended into immortality accordingly. Almost 30 years on, It All Comes Back arrived to prove that the vinyl was no fluke, and that Tudor Lodge truly were one of the greatest bands of their era. True, little here absolutely matches the farsighted vision of the debut, but it maybe wasn't meant to. Rather, it gathers up a mixed bag of music recorded by the bandmembers between 1971 and their official reunion in 1997, opening with three rough but enchanting demos pairing guitarists John Stannard and Lyndon Green with Linda Thompson in the early '70s. At the other end of the disc, a scratchy live recording from a 1971 Windsor Folk Club gig and the much sought-after non-LP B-side "The Good Times We Had" complete the survey of Tudor Lodge's "classic" era. In many ways, however, it's the ragbag of offerings that occupy the space in between that's the most interesting. Five Stannard solo demos, recorded with a bevy of friends and session men, offer an inkling as to how Tudor Lodge might have sounded had their own three-piece lineup been permanently expanded, while a couple of songs that were originally taped at one of the 1980 reunion concerts have been more or less completely re-recorded to preserve the spirit of those shows, if not the actual sound quality. Finally, two "new" recordings -- an orchestra-less remake of "It All Comes Back to Me" and the 1997 composition "Home to Stay" -- are powerful enough to draw anybody into the albums that the reunited Tudor Lodge have released since this set was compiled. ~ Dave Thompson|