Album US 1987 on MCA Records label
Jazz (Smooth Jazz, New Age)
Japan for U.S. pressing Original Master Series Recorded at Hansa-Haus Studios, Bonn, West Germany. "The Colonel And The Ashes" recorded at Hot Nights Studio, London, England. Mixed at Fairland Studios, Bochum, West Germany. Mixed and mastered using the JVC Digital Audio Mastering System. Guitars used on this album by Takamine, Lowden, Viloplana, Manning. Liner Notes: I had always wanted to form an instrumental band since I saw "Pentangle" in the early 70's. The acoustic guitar had always been my first love and when I teamed up with classical/flamenco guitarist Simon James things started to take some shape. Since neither of us had any hang-ups about musical barriers, we found we were writing duets of all kinds of musical styles. An album and a single later Simon drifted away to pursue a classical career and I began working with my present partner, Greg Carmichael. Greg brought fresh inspiration and new ideas and before we knew it we were working our passage to the States, performing on Virgin Airlines as "in-flight entertainment." Our travels took us eventually to Nashville and to a meeting with Tony Brown at MCA who commissioned us to make this album for the Master Series. The material on the album represents a wide variety of styles-rock, jazz, flamenco, folk and almost everything in between. The artistic freedom allowed us by the label meant that I could employ the multivarious talents of John Parsons to produce the record. Incidentally John is a superb guitarist in his own right. ln short I had the chance to do everything I’d ever wanted but as the old maxim goes “never believe what an artist says-only what he does" or as Donald Faqan once said, "l cried when I wrote this song-sue me if I play too long." lf The Oxford English Dictionary definition of alchemy, is "pursuit of the transmutation of the baser metals into gold" and acoustic is "pertaining to sound" then "Acoustic Alchemy" must surely mean "the transformation of musical instruments into something more than the sum of their component parts." lf our basic ingredients began with 2 acoustic guitars then who's to say where it might end. NICK WEBB
![]() | Acoustic Alchemy , *1981 GB album by |
![]() | Gunnar Plümer b, *1951 DE acoustic bass |
![]() | Werner Kopal b, *1956 DE bass |
![]() | Bert Smaak dr, *1960 DE drums |
![]() | John Parsons g, *1954 GB , steel, producer, written by |
![]() | Greg Carmichael g, acg, *1953 guitar, nylon, written by |
![]() | Nick Webb g, acg, *1954 GB guitar, nylon, guitar, steel, written by |
![]() | David Munday g, b, key, perc, US keyboards |
![]() | Rainer Brüninghaus key, p, *1949 DE keyboards |
![]() | Mario Argandoña voc, perc, *1950 DE percussion |
![]() | Simon Morton perc, cng, GB percussion |
Simon Levy art direction |
Virginia Team art direction, design |
Jerry Joyner cover |
Milan Bogdan edited by |
Benny Quinn mastered by |
Manfred Struck mixed by |
Gary Ledden photography |
John Brand recorded by |
Klaus Genuit recorded by |
No | Title | Artist | Composer | Duration |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Mr. Chow | Acoustic Alchemy | Greg Carmichael, Nick Webb | 3:06 |
2 | Ricochet | Acoustic Alchemy | Greg Carmichael, John Parsons, Nick Webb | 3:20 |
3 | The Stone Circle | Acoustic Alchemy | Greg Carmichael, John Parsons, Nick Webb | 4:16 |
4 | The Rideout | Acoustic Alchemy | Greg Carmichael, Nick Webb | 3:33 |
5 | Girl With A Red Carnation | Acoustic Alchemy | Nick Webb | 3:07 |
6 | The Colonel And The Ashes | Acoustic Alchemy | Greg Carmichael, Nick Webb | 3:24 |
7 | One For The Road | Acoustic Alchemy | Jeff Clyne, John Parsons, Nick Webb | 6:23 |
8 | Sarah Victoria | Acoustic Alchemy | Nick Webb | 2:19 |
9 | Red Dust And Spanish Lace | Acoustic Alchemy | Greg Carmichael, John Parsons, Nick Webb | 8:47 |
Acoustic Alchemy - Red Dust & Spanish Lace US 1995 Jazz |