Artist...OYSTER BAND
  Album...TRAWLER
  Label...COOKING VINYL
  Cat.No...COOK CD 078
  
  Review..Many have come to regard The Oyster Band as the fathers of the new generation of roots
  rockers as they made a successful transition from being one of the country's top ceildh bands to
  being one of the country's best rock band.
     "Trawler" is a 'best of' with a number of differences.  Firstly five of the tracks have been re-
  recorded both to reflect the band's current line-up and also because the band play and interpret the
  songs differently now.  Though if you buy the cd you do get the original versions of the re-recorded
  songs as extra tracks.  Secondly this is a budget release, in the sense of cost only.  This is a band
  that knows most people buying this will have a number of the tracks so why rip them off.  Thirdly
  and now increasingly unusually with 'best of' compilations this was compiled with the aid of the
  band, a band that is going stronger than ever, rather than a compilation strung together by a label
  that has just lost the band in question and are trying to milk the back catalogue for all it's worth.
     "Trawler" is an album of songs, most written by the band.  There are a couple of cover's
  including the band's controversial interpretation of "Love Vigilantes" a song that saw the band
  getting flack from both techno fans as well as folk purists, it remains however a classic example of
  what a cover version should be about.
     The album includes a personal favourite of mine, "Oxford Girl", a song with a very
  traditional root, although it's very modern, having been penned by the band.  Some of the songs on
  the album reflect the band's political leanings, but there isn't a true folk album in the world that
  doesn't.
     The Oyster Band are as much about nose rings as they are about beards, this is the face
  of folk/roots rock that dragged the genre screaming and kicking through the 80s and into the 90s
  and will no doubt push it forward to the next millennia and "Trawler" is the album to put the cap on
  the band's past successes as well as offer hints on what is to follow.