West Of Eden – No Time Like The Past

Hailed as ’the best of contemporary folk’ by Irish Music Magazine, Swedish folk band West Of Eden now celebrate 20 years with a compilation album and an anniversary tour.

Just outside the mainstream limelight, but with a faithful and growing audience, West Of Eden have stubbornly continued carving out their own brand of music with strong influences from British and Irish folk music. Add to this their lyrics that ’put many a lyricist born and bred to English to shame’ and you will find that ’there’s a versatility and a noticeableabsence of the often tame respect for musical predecessors that can diminish so many of their European counterparts’ efforts, the band’s sound is unmistakably chiefly driven by their love of the music’.”

In spite of setbacks, deaths and no less than 7 changes of bass players, over the course of these 2 decades, the band have released 10 albums and spent countless miles together in the tour bus. The records have been met with fantastic reviews both in Sweden and abroad, which also has led to collaborations with musicians from Alison Krauss & Union Station, The Chieftains and Mark Knopfler’s band, to name a few.

The new song ”Twenty Years Of Travelling”, written especially for the compilation album, chronicles the struggles and the travels, but above all speaks about the joy in playing together. On ”No Time Like The Past”, West of Eden have also included a new recording of ”Where The Ivy Is Growing”, the 1st song they ever wrote. In addition to this, they serve up tunes like ”Faraway”, written at the request of music mogul Bert Karlsson, who wanted to send ’something Irish’ to the Eurovision Song Contest.

And even if West Of Eden like to look backwards, write albums about the Swedish wave of emigration to America in the 19th century and choose to call a retrospective album ”No Time Like The Past”, the future looks bright, indeed. Thirty something shows in Sweden after the release is followed by a German tour and then, for the first time, China. It’s simply just as Jenny puts it in the song :

”Onwards, upwards, never back, things to carry, bags to pack, another page is finished in our book, this is not a happy ending, this is not the curtain call, it’s just 20 years of travelling, and I wish for 20 more”.

Tracklist:

1. Twenty Years Of Travelling
2. Where The Ivy Is Growing
3. Safe Crossing
4. Tekla’s Tune
5. The Bee That Stung
6. Immortal
7. Look To The West
8. Glenntown
9. On She Goes
10. Bird Of Passage
11. True Believer
12. This Piece Of Earth
13. Rollercoaster
14. Green Fields Of Clover/The (Homecoming)
15. Wilson Line
16. In A Faraway Town
17. Garden Out Of Time
18. Hawthorne Heights
19. Faraway
20. Sweet Old Country
21. Jimmy’s Van
22. Scottish Rain
23. (I Still Remember) How To Forget
24. The Boy From Yesterday
25. The Captain’s Daughter

More information about the new release at the West Of Eden website.