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Kathryn Williams Anthology

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What does it sound like?:

So I better start by a declaration of interest in that I contributed material for the bonus discs that accompany 10 of Kathryn’s albums from 1999-2015 that make up this box set. I attended his first London show and bought the sound guy a pint in exchange for a copy of the set from the board. I gave Kathryn a copy when she started putting together this career spanning collection. Not getting remuneration for it however so apart from being a fan of some 20 years standing I have nowt to declare – but you can probably guess I’m not gonna hate it.

Kathryn’s never been pigeonholed and her career is all the more interesting for that. Her first album cost £80 to make, her 2nd was Mercury nominated, she’s worked with Ed Harcourt, John Martyn, Chris Difford & Thea Gilmore, shared stages with the Watersons, The Thompsons, June Tabor & Frank Sidebottom and put out 14 albums to date. All these influences be it Nick Drake, Nirvana, Ivor Cutler, Pavement, Leonard Cohen or The Roches colour her work. Its not folk – although there is softly sung acoustic material, its not pop – although there are loops, beats and percussive rhythms. What it is though is intensely personal, direct and honest songwriting sung in a way that draws your attention and cuts to the very heart of the matter.

Its an impossibility to review the whole thing so let me give you a couple of examples that you can check out on YouTube or whatever and if you appreciate what I am saying and it grabs you then this may be the best 60 quid you ever spend.

We Dug A Hole from ‘Little Black Numbers’, her Mercury nominated 2nd album begins with an almost whispered vocal and lightly plucked strings and it slowly builds to a swirling coda with the mantra ‘warmer than wood, old and safe’ swamped by a joyful cacophony including barking and laughter.

Beating Heart from ‘Hypoxia’ – her album based on characters from Sylvia Plath’s ‘The Bell Jar’ that grew out of a commission by new Writing North. Its the eye of the hurricane is a swirling album of extreme emotions, confusion, anger and hurt. Its about the fragility of the human mind but the strength of the human spirit to endure despite itself. The final ‘I can, I can’ which flips into ‘Can I? Can I?’ gets me every damn time

Sequins From ‘Crown Electric’ – an amusing heartfelt song about death and the afterlife, about aging and being happy with what we are given. Brilliant production and chiming piano from Ed Harcourt, swooping strings and one of Kathryn’s best vocals and lyrics ‘if I walk the afterlife with no makeup on I’ll be frightening the angels for good’ is sung with an audible grin.

Grey Goes from ‘Two’ her collaboration with Neill MacColl is a spiky, woozy affair with abstract lyrics and there is a live take on the box that goes out there and then some.

Aside from the albums proper there is a whole extra CD of covers to go with her ‘Relations’ covers LP – a rare example of the genre that is actually successful. Home demos and live cuts a plenty as well as many unreleased songs that are not mere doodles but complete studio versions of tracks equal to those that made it onto the albums. Rather than simply collect all the material that is out there and dump it on the CDs, Kathryn is trying to tell a story of her as an artist as well as how the albums were made.

So basically, its a yes from me.

What does it all *mean*?

This is a very personal, tactile and beautifully presented collection. Containing 20 CDs, two books (one of lyrics, the other an illustrated commentary on the albums, her career and songs) wrapped in Kathryn’s own designed artwork and pictures – its a labour of love.

Goes well with…

The rest of your life.

Newbie or fan – you get an almighty bang for your buck

Release Date:

9th August 2019

Might suit people who like…

Folk, pop, jazz, a walk on the wild side, a window into your soul

11

Comments

  1. Mine was ordered on Friday so your review is acting as a palate cleanser ahead of the main course. Looking forward to it and your review is much better than the paltry few words in this months Uncut.

  2. Kathryn-curious fans within reach of London can see a cheap gig when she plays Daylight Music at Union Chapel on 28 September. It’s a fiver on the door, and where I aim to pick up a copy of the box set.

    • Yes I am up in Liverpool that weekend – seeing her on the Friday and a few more on the tour

      She is pulling in some pals for that Daylight Music gig so it promises to be a belter

  3. As the guy in the know and I know I shouldn’t ask, but as, a) not a fan of boxsets as b) I will have much of the material and am never all that keen on live recordings, is the covers album ever likely to make a standalone? Or is it all separately downloadable, a poor compromise for, I know, hard product. I am a covers freak and, yes, as you say, Relations is a high water mark in the history of such records.

      • The extra material is exclusive to box set,won’t be on streaming services. You are getting nearly 200 tracks you dont already own at £3 a CD plus 2 books and the remastered albums. Double dipping is a bargain

        And if the guy in Lichfiekf burns you a copy he’s a cunt robbing indie artists attempting to bring you something unique.

        • The guy in Lichfield has already shelled out the readies direct to her site even though Amazon are cheaper. So don’t give me that nonsense.
          The question mark is over the potential buyer and his conscience.
          If I want something I buy it – never bootleg it unless it is something not available for sale and I want it.
          Don’t think we differ too much DFB as I know you are fond of illegal recordings.
          Or are you a reformed character?

          • Well I clearly have no idea who that fella is, but I can always find a way of tipping £3 her way, one way or another. I see her catalogue is available on band camp allowing getting that duo album with Neil MacColl I have always coveted, paying £3 more. Well, I could. Having said, if I wait long enough, exclusives often do later appear in a different form.

            • Then again the fella in Lichfield could be promoting Kathryn by giving a snippet of her music to someone who has no intention of buying it. That person could be so blown away that he decides to go and buy the box after all.
              The fella in Lichfield might then be worthy of some kind of award for services to music.
              Funny old world innit.

              • Bootlegs are not of commercially available material – you are talking about sharing what is the main
                appeal of the box set to get material otherwise unavailable.

                It’s already been made clear that Retro has no intention of buying the box set so you aren’t playing the good Samaritan.

                Why dont you drop Kath a line and see what she says. She probably won’t curse you out to your face but then shes a much nicer person than I am.

    • I hope she wouldn’t curse me @DogFacedBoy since I have bought not only this boxset but several of her earlier releases and consider myself a fan. The original comment was slightly tongue in cheek but seems to be have been taken out of context.
      I do not ordinarily make a habit of burning copies of albums but let me make a couple of points that should perhaps make artists reconsider their actions. Natalie Merchant released a boxset of all of her albums – I am something of a fan and already had all of the albums. She added two discs of unreleased stuff to the box. Now I am not going to buy a box of albums I already have with no extras for the sake of getting 2 unreleased discs.
      Kathryn has actually been admirable in her release as every album has a disc of unreleased stuff which is a real treasure trove and I have no qualms about duplicating half of the officially released stuff.
      The other point is that The Afterword massive have had a tradition of exchanging mix CD’s at mingles and on this site – is there a different view on these?
      I think you know me well enough to know I am a serious music fan and I probably but more physical product than perhaps 90 percent of the people frequenting this site.

      • Other box sets don’t concern me – you pays your money etc. In the case of the mingle CDs I know I bought a hell of a lot of music off the back of them but this was an offer to copy a full CD.

        I just know how hard Kathryn has worked on this release, to get it right and she deserves to reap the rewards not monetarily but in terms of appreciation from people who purchase it. Sorry if handle was flown off or dummy spat

        And besides my recording of her playing the Velvets ‘What Goes On’ is on the Relations extras disc so don’t be giving that away to no one

      • Actually there is an interesting interview with Richard Thompson in this months Mojo where he described an incident in London many years ago where he saw a number of Richard Thompsin bootlegs. He approached the seller and attempted to take the CD’s from him as they were ‘his property’ The police became involved but he didnt say what the outcome was.
        I am more annoyed that people rely on streaming or Spotify but unfortunately the genie is out of the bottle in that regard. I use neither by the way.

        • It annoys me when you buy a box set and then all of it shows up on Spotify or iTunes as I love the tactile and imaginative art that goes into a lot of boxsets. Which is why I was pleased when Kathryn said that wouldn’t be happening – get it here or you don’t get it.

          And I know streaming \ Spotify would mean more people would be able to access it and hear it but I feel it devalues art

          • @DogFacedBoy you and I share the same views and I dont like rare stuff becoming available free to people who dont put their hand in their pocket. Hopefully Retro will get a response from his line to Kathryn as I know covers have been his forte for a long time. I will refrain from downloading it for anyone.
            By the way like you the mingle CD’s have lead to ne buying loads of stuff. And I still regard the Byrne/Thompson live CD you located for me one of my favourite bootlegs
            Dont go back over the bridge it’s good to have you back around these parts.
            Sorry for any offence.

            • Hey @SteveT, this is what you get up to in my absence! Do you know ‘Home Taping Is Killing Music’ you old c@nt.

              @DogFacedBoy, I enjoyed your review, yours is the first thread I’ve read on here for many months. I enjoyed the review so much I’m now going to order the box set. A 20 CD set is just the thing I need to go with my 38 CD Woodstock set.

              • Hey @Baron-Harkonnen you come on here with your hand grenades. Get back to cleaning the house. You knew all about the Kathryn Williams boxset because I told you about it in Leamington and urged you to buy it in fact I urge everyone to buy it and not from Amazon buy it from Kathryn’s site.

  8. @chiz But we’re not talking about bootlegs – that was only thrown in by SteveT to suggest humbuggery or hypocritical standpoint. Its all good shitstirring fun I am sure but not going to indulge you.

    What we are talking is someone offering to copy commercially available material from a very reasonably priced boxset and I stand by my opinion that person is a cockwomble if he does it. He might think ‘I paid for it its mine I can do what I like’ and hey, its only one potential sale but its an attitude that stinks.

    I should never have walked back over the bridge that I burned

    • I’m very pleased you did cross back over, DFB, otherwise I would have missed out on this (for one).

      I saw Kathryn years ago support someone in the basement of a Cambridge café, bought Little Black Numbers from her, only picked up a couple along the way, so not much duplication for me. This box is therefore a no-brainer.

    • Tantrums and abuse aside, I don’t think anyone gets to dictate the content of threads like this. It’s your prerogative not to respond, but pretending to leave because you’re being picked on is a bit over the top, isn’t it?

      I agree that no one should share released material, but I’d assume that extends to unreleased stuff as well, because it’s an asset that belongs to the artist and it’s up to them when and how it goes out, or not. You’re an enthusiastic sharer of illicit stuff, and obviously disagree – so it would be interesting to know how you see it.

  9. So is it ok to obtain an established artist’s box set from a file sharing site as they presumably don’t need the cash, but not an indie artist’s who does – where do you draw the line?

      • Please don’t, DFB, it has been a joy to see you back. I wouldn’t accept Steve’s offer any more than if it were you, even tho’ he has zillions of CDs I covet. I too prefer hard product, just maybe not needing that much duplication, at whatever value, rogue live cuts being rarely enough to lure me in. I will let you know what KW calls me for the cheek of asking…..

      • For what it’s worth (nothing probably) I would never illegally download stuff from artists like Kathryn who are obviously still struggling to make an honest living. I, however, have no problem whatsoever with filesharing stuff from for instance Bob Dylan – gigantic box sets with admittedly fantastic stuff in there but simply marketing exercises designed to fleece aged but moderately rich punters like what inhabit this blog. And by the way The Rolling Thunder Revue (all 267 CDs) is breathtaking.

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