back to folk...

Wow, that is one beautiful woman! ! !
I figure today it will be harder to navigate away from the page with a bit of eye candy coming up first...
It's inexplicable to me why some amazing folk albums are still unknown. This one in particular has a great pedigree, I see from brief research online that Bojoura Cleuver was a hugely popular singer in Holland back in the day-- 40 years ago that is. It's arranged and composed to a large extent by Thijs van Leer, whose solo albums are quite available. His presence explains why these songs are so much above the usual folksy material.
I really love this album and that's why I've brought it back from the brink here. Particularly impressive are the van Leer ones, The swallow and the calf which is I gather a trad. song, tells the parable of those who are fated for freedom (the swallow) and those who are fated for chains (the calf). I have to admit it's hard for me to listen without at least one tear appearing indiscretely. The "Time it goes by" reminds me a lot of Nick Drake's early stuff. Please note that Bojoura has written the lyrics for a few tracks. What a tragedy that this well-written music is so rare today, it really doesn't deserve to be, several tracks here are as good as any AM radio standards like simon and garfunkel or peter paul and mary that are so overplayed day in day out. I don't understand why people are so willing to put up with the same repertoire in their lives. So strange too to think that those who recall this album, would be by now mostly senior citizens, retirees with grey hair. The beautiful Raina (Bojoura) herself is now a lovely 63 year old grandmother, untouched I'm sure from mr botox and ms. restylane, with several beautiful grandchildren probably some with great musical talent. Time is still a great mystery in physics with physicists evenly divided between those who view it as a perceptual illusion in reality a block as in einsteinian gravitation (general relativity) (there is only one bojoura in the present past and future) and those who feel it is related to entropy and the birth of the universe and possibly involves unknown physics (further increases in her entropy will lead to dust).
Please enjoy this lost gem as much as I have and let's hope its worldline continues far into the high entropy space of states.

More info, from websites:
"Bojoura, of Bulgarian descent, was the most popular Dutch singer for a long period of time. She was born in 1947 in The Hague as Raina Cleuver van Melzen and discovered by George Kooymans (Golden Earring) in 1967. She recorded a lot of folk songs, although she also did some songs penned by Kooymans. She was frequently accompanied by the Thijs van Leer Trio (1967-1969)."

"Asked to think up the title for this new Bojoura album, I couldn't but suggest to entitle it "The Beauty of Bojoura", impressed as I am by her inward as well as her outward beauty. In addition to a talent for singing she also possesses a fine feeling for languages. This not only manifests itself in her fluency when speaking such languages as French, German, English, Bulgarian or Dutch, but also in the remarkable richness of metaphor in the lyrics she writes. This figurative language has been a great inspiration to me when setting a handful of her poems to music. On the other hand, Bo and I have equally enjoyed doing our versions of songs from the repertoire of such groups and singers as Peter, Paul & Mary, the Doors, the Rolling Stones, Tim Hardin and Tom Paxton." - Thijs van Leer.
Tracklist:

Side A
Black sheep child (Tim Hardin)
Last thing on my mind (T. Paxton)
The wizard and the girl (T. van Leer/ B. Cleuver)
Flora (Stookey - Travers - Mezzetti)
The swallow and the calf (Trad. - T. van Leer/ B. Cleuver)
Side B
Comes a time (T. van Leer/ B. Cleuver)
Time it goes by (E. Nobel/ T. van Leer/ B. Cleuver)
The days of love (T. van Leer/ B. Cleuver)
Wintertime love (The Doors)
Backstreet Girl (M. Jagger/ K. Richards)
Why do they go back home (T. van Leer/ B. Cleuver/ J.Akkerman)

The Swallow and the calf...

link is in progress.