Re: Assorted Musical Stuff

Randolph just pointed out that Tempest can only be described in part as a
"Celtic Rock" group, they also play a lot of Norse style music.

He's correct, and I wanted to add that they also do a lot of Middle Eastern style tunes. It kind of depends which album you pick up:

"Bootleg" and "Serrated Edge" are their 2 earliest albums are are very
Celtic in sound (many of the tunes are traditional, others they wrote), with the energy of rock. (You can also hear the inspiration of Jethro Tull in some of the riffs.)

"Sunken Treasures" (a compilation of their early material) is also pretty
much Celtic rock, with some more general "Americana folk" type tunes as well.

"Surfing to Mecca" stays with the Celtic theme, but adds a lot of Middle
Eastern tunes as well; and has more original material than the first 3.

"Turn of the Wheel" is their most recent, and takes the Norse track over
the Middle Eastern one. This in large part reflects some changes in the band's composition at this time which prompted Leif to bring out some more of the music of his homeland. (He was born in Norway and came to the US as a young adult in the late 60's to be a wandering musician. He later went on to help form Golden Bough, and then Tempest, among other things.)

"Across the Borders" is Leif's solo album, and is general folk in sound,
with a variety of cultural touches.

Tempest is also the band behind Michael Longcor's "Drunken Angel" album. (Michael is a midwest folk musician / filker who does mainly American history and space related songs.)

I just always refer to Tempest as "Celtic Rock" because it's the most succinct and easily recognizable label to use; and humans like simple labels. :) I also found them at the time of their first couple of albums before they went quite so global, and so I've stuck with what I know. (Another great human mental trait. Got to love those Social-Cognition Psych classes. :)

Providing complex answers to simple questions . . . .

                                Quarong

P.S. Randolph -- You're welcome for the info. I do honestly put them out with the hope that they're useful for something other than using up my plentiful spare time. :)    Received on 06/30/98