Wednesday 18 December 2013

Ashes Are Burning (Renaissance, 1973)

One of the most known and appreciated tracks of Renaissance, this is the title track of Renaissance's fourth album and one of the best vocal performances of Annie Haslam. This is not all, of course: in its 11 minutes of sparkling music, you'll find John Tout's  brilliant piano and keyboard solos, with a heartbreaking Hammond I adore and an impressive series of creative bass lines. And then... there's the rightly famous solo guitar by guest musician Andy Powell of Wishbone Ash (well, of course... Ashes are important here!).

"Ashes Are Burning" is definitely one of my favourites.
 
Andy's bluesy performance shines upon the keyboards and the rising drums, an excellent finale for such a good track, whose dynamic changes will always amaze me. I must spend another word about Annie's voice to finish my post: she reaches the highest notes without any volume decrease or tone impurity... a real wonder I appreciate more and more as I grow old.

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