Paddy McAloon & Jimmy Webb - The Highwayman

Prefab Sprout - which is now down to genius singer/songwriter Paddy McAloon and him alone - released Crimson/Red this week, the first "proper" new Prefab album in 16 years. One of its ten gorgeous songs is called "The Songs Of Danny Galway" and is a tribute to another genius singer/songwriter, the eminent Jimmy Webb. In 1991 McAloon met Webb in Dublin, and this encounter is what inspired the song. They performed Webb's classic "The Highwayman" together with an orchestra for a TV show called An Eye To The Music, and it's a wonderful version of a song that is so good it prompted Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings to name themselves after it when they established their country supergroup in 1985. And please note that McAloon in this clip looks like a cross between James Taylor and Johnny Depp. Why he didn't make the ladies swoon (sorry) is beyond me.

PS. Crimson/Red is so far the next best album of 2013 in my opinion, only championed by Daft Punk's Random Access Memories. Are they different? You bet! Are they both good? Hell yes!

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