CD Quality (16bit/44.1kHz) Info pass: profstoned

_**Nick Drake - Bryter Later Sessions**_ There’s a ridiculously lavish _Five Leaves Left_ box coming out in a couple weeks — and god help me, I think I want it. You might have assumed that they’d scraped every last barrel in the Nick Drake archives … and yet! The new four-disc collection includes such previously unheard gems as a rapturous solo rendition of “Cello Song” (here titled “Strange Face”) and a marvelously laid-back / stripped down “Time Has Told Me” with only Danny Thompson providing rich acoustic bass textures. I guess I’m going to have to shell out for this one … Until _The_ _Making of Five Leaves Left_ doorstop arrives on my doorstep, I’m going back to some of those hazey bootlegs — like a short-but-sweet selection of Bryter Later demos and works-in-progress. The piano sketches are particularly nice, since there aren’t too many examples of Nick on the keys. Bring on _The Making of Bryter Later_! _**Joe Boyd Says:**_ I regularly get e-mails from people saying, “When are you going to put out the version of _Five Leaves Left_ or _Bryter Layter_ with just Nick and guitar?” There are people who feel that _Pink Moon_ is the very essence of Nick Drake and that is just voice and guitar. And that the rest was me as a producer overdoing it and putting on too much arrangement, too much production, too much this or that. The truth is that Nick was the one, when he first played, the only times he was really comfortable when he played in Cambridge were when he played with a string quartet, with Robert Kirby doing the arrangements. He loved playing with strings. He loved playing with other musicians.