• 57-track career retrospective
• Total Music Time - 3 Hours 37 minutes !!
• Major new release from this leading Folk icon
• 16 completely new tracks, 16 hard-to-find performances, plus 25 archive rarities
• Features Peter's first & last studio recordings
• Bonus CD-ROM section and hot web-links!
• Recordings with: Young Tradition, Shirley & Dolly Collins, Louis Killen, Dave Swarbrick, The Watersons, Steve Tilston, Maggie Boyle and more
• 72-page Booklet, discography and Karl Dallas biography - AND Great Value - rrp = £24.99 !

It seems but a few short years since the shock news of Peter Bellamy's sudden death rippled around the wide world of folk music: Back then, in September 1991, LP record shelves seemed to bulge with examples of his vast, unique, idiosyncratic and often deeply moving output.

But years pass, vinyl gathers dust, and the classic recordings of truly major artists are sadly consigned to the vaults as Records Companies come and go, and as multi-national "Entertainment " conglomerates steadily junk all but the most 'commercial' masters from their inherited back-catalogues.

Neil Wayne and his Free Reed label have clearly felt it to be long overdue for a real celebration of Peter Bellamy, this hero, this icon, this sometime-enigma of the British, and world folk scene, and in typical Free Reed fashion, (remember their superb 1997 Dransfields retrospective, 'Up to Now'?) Wayne has delivered the most detailed, most complete - and the most musically entrancing celebration of this great, and greatly missed, pillar of the folk revival.

Yes! - a celebration!! This splendid, over three-and-a-half-hour, three-CD/Booklet/CD-ROM package delivers fifty-seven - yes 57! - seminal performances by Peter Bellamy, from his wild and heady days with the Young Tradition, through his ground-breaking solo work in Europe, the USA and Australia, to his settings of Kipling's ballads and poems - and including his acclaimed 'Transports' ballad opera - all crafted in his unique and uncannily traditional style.

Peter Bellamy's career has remained a thread of excellence permeating the whole world of folk music for over thirty years, but since his early and tragic death in 1991, much of his massive recorded output was thought lost..... however, many precious masters and un-released recordings had in fact been preserved by Bellamy's long time collaborator, recordist and friend Nigel Schofield, the noted Bradford radio- and record-producer. Together with the vital tape archives of Jenny Bellamy, and with further treasures unearthed by Wayne's diligent digging in archives, vaults and tape collections around the planet, the pair have accessed over 800 different recordings to produce a winning - and most definitive selection!

Here are 16 completely new performances, a further 16 tracks never before widely available, and 25 choice songs from all those rare and archive sources from around the world, all in all delivering the most complete retrospective collection of Peter Bellamy's life's work ever assembled - and including unique performances with YT, Shirley Collins, Dolly Collins, Louis Killen, Dave Swarbrick, The Watersons, Steve Tilston, Maggie Boyle and many more.

Special gems include Peter and Shirley Collins live at Sydney Opera House; the only un-released Young Tradition track; rare & un-released songs with Peter and the Watersons; Peter's first and last recordings - and an amazing 5-inch one-sided single of Peter and Tony McCarthy, recorded in a record-shop booth in 1964!!

All this great music is deftly linked, in a whopping 72 page Booklet, by an in-depth memoir on Peter's life and work by the eminence tres grise of world-music journalism Karl Dallas, and including incredibly detailed track-source notes from the Schofield archives.

Amongst its many special sections, the Booklet includes -

• A major in-depth Memoir on Peter's life and times by leading world- music journalist Karl Dallas, featuring excerpts from Peter's last major interview.
• A definitive Bellamy Discography, with full track lists, session data and sleeve art of ALL of Peter's solo commercial recordings
• Summary Discographies of his work with Young Tradition, his session work, and his vast 'private tape' output - with detailed annotations by co-producer and friend Nigel Schofield
• The most superb and detailed Track Notes, setting each song in the context of Peter's career and of the turbulent world folk scene of the period
• Information Panels - succinct data sheets about key areas of Peter's life - The Transports, Kipling, Peter the Artist, his Maritime England Suite, The 1990 Anthologies, Barrack Room Ballads, etc etc
• Tributes and Recollections - a wealth of memoirs and memories from Peter's friends, family and co-performers down the years, including - Martin Carthy, The EFDSS, Heather Wood, Mike Grosvenor Myer, Nigel Schofield, Paul Adams, Dave Swarbrick, Pete Berryman, Bob Copper, Steve Tilston, Steve Ashley, Vic Smith, Gavin Davenport, and from his widow Jenny Bellamy.
• All is leavened and decorated throughout with many historic and poignant photographs and posters from throughout Peter's long career, and with a list of WebSites that feature Peter, his life and his music.

And for the first time on a Free Reed folk CD, there's a whole section of CD-ROM tracks which features Peter expounding his views on a range of subjects dear to his heart - his music, his songs, the folk scene and fashion! Sources include over 20 years of concert performances, interviews, studio chat and his legendary Cecil Sharp House lecture. There are also dedicated hyperlinks to Free Reed's Bellamy Archive web- site, and to Bellamy fan-sites around the world.

So, play, discover, and enjoy the staggering breadth of Peter Bellamy's huge talent - and let's 'wake these vaulted echoes' for the world to hear!