When the Day is Done (The Orchestrations of Robert Kirby)

Nick Drake’s reputation is now fully entrenched, but while his vocal-and-guitar-only work on Pink Moon is rightly valorized, it’s equally true that his Cambridge classmate and friend Robert Kirby’s sensitive, subtle string arrangements on Drake’s first two albums were no less compelling an approach. Bob Stanley used Drake’s “Introduction” as a launching point – accentuated by the Five Leaves Left-nodding album art and title – for When the Day is Done, an overview looking at Kirby’s 1970s creations in that field for a wide variety of folk artists and beyond following his initial breakout efforts for Drake and Vashti Bunyan, often working with artists produced by Joe Boyd and Sandy Roberton. Kirby’s ear for elegant, softly sad music almost turns the collection into a solo album with a series of guest singers, while at the same time the sheer range is remarkable, from John Cale’s dramatic “I Keep A Close Watch” and Dana Gillespie’s fraught “What Memories We Make” to the serenely beautiful rambles of “It’s My Own Way” by Gillian McPherson and “Dancing At Whitsun” by Tim Hart and Maddy Pryor.