Renaissance Singer Annie Haslam Talks 50 Years with the Band
The symphonic progressive masters celebrate 50 years with an outstanding new live box set.
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I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Renaissance vocalist Annie Haslam and she and her band are the subject this week. I hope you enjoy what follows at least half as much as I enjoyed talking to Annie.
If progressive/symphonic rock royalty were a thing, Annie Haslam would be the queen. With her distinctive soaring vocals and ability to hit high notes that are barely in a range picked up by human ears, Haslam has been the voice of Renaissance since 1971. Her first album with the band was Prologue, the band’s third release, which came out in 1972.
Today Haslam still has her incredible five-octave vocal range and the band is still going, although the COVID-19 pandemic obviously took a bite out of Renaissance’s touring schedule. To commemorate such a remarkable feat of longevity, the band has recently released a Blu-ray/DVD/2CD set of its 50th anniversary concert at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, PA, near northwest Philadelphia. Recorded on Oct. 12, 2019, 50th Anniversary - Ashes are Burning - an Anthology - Live in Concert with The Renaissance Chamber Orchestra is a brilliant live document of the band at its best. It commemorates the lifespan of Renaissance to that point, from the band’s 1969 inception.
“It couldn’t have been longer,” Haslam laughed about the lengthy title of the new box set. “It was difficult to know what to call it, really. But we thought Ashes are Burning (the title of both the band’s well-known 1973 release and its epic title track) was good because it’s such a popular song and I’d already done a painting for it that we had behind us before on stage and I thought, ‘we could use parts of that for the cover.’
“And everybody knows the song. We put in ‘anthology’ because we were concerned that people might think it’s the whole album we were doing. It was long but we had to get the orchestra in there, because it has to be in there. That’s how it should have been the whole of our careers. We should have had an orchestra everywhere.”
As the verbose title suggests, the band performed the live concert with a 10-piece chamber orchestra, adding a great deal of texture and depth to the songs, and, as a special treat, Renaissance co-founder Jim McCarty appeared on stage with the band for a couple of songs. The lineup for the performance was Haslam (lead vocals), Rave Tesar (keyboards), Mark Lambert (guitars/vocals), Geoffrey Langley (keyboards/vocals), Leo Traversa (bass guitar/vocals), and Frank Pagano (drums/percussion/vocals).
The release came out on Symphonic Rock recordings in the U.S., Canada, and South America on April 23 and in the rest of the world on Cherry Red Records April 30. But the best place for fans to grab this set is from the Renaissance website because Annie will autograph it for you. The Blu Ray from the box set represents the band’s first ever high-resolution video release.
“I’m very picky and I didn’t really want to do a Blu Ray because it’s like, ‘oh, I don’t want people to see me in close up,’” said Haslam. “We hadn’t had that much experience being filmed, which is a shame because (shows at) Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall should have been filmed and they weren’t.”
The setlist is a fantastic cross-section of favorites from throughout the band’s storied career, some of which had previously never been orchestrated. The band is in fine form on the recording. For me, the highlights are “Carpet of the Sun,” “Ocean Gypsy,” and of course the 16-minute live version of “Ashes are Burning.”
“I have all the power in the world because I’m the captain of the ship,” laughed Haslam when asked about choosing the songs for the setlist, adding that Tesar helped construct a setlist that would best suit Haslam’s vocals.
“We have such an amazing catalog of music,” she continued. “We have to think about the favorites. We didn’t do “Mother Russia” this time around because we did it the last time. Really the best (songs) are the long ones. But I do have to think about also, am I singing enough? If we did all long songs then I’d be at the back of the stage playing the tambourine most of the time, because there’s a lot of instrumentals. It was difficult. There were so many great songs we could have chosen.”
The inclusion of the song “Island” from the band’s self-titled 1969 debut album was special, particularly with guest McCarty, the former Yardbirds drummer, because it was the song Haslam sang at her Renaissance audition. It’s little wonder she got the job.
Adding a unique, personal touch to the video of the show is that each song is represented by an original painting by Haslam. Each painting serves as the backdrop on the stage for its corresponding song.
“In 2017, when we decided to use the orchestra, I thought ‘oh my god, this is my opportunity to show my art,’” said Haslam. “I know the songs so well and I can paint a song. I just listen to it and I don’t look at anything. It just pours through me. I don’t know where it comes from, to be honest.”
Haslam said the anniversary release was assisted by fans of the band, who contributed to a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to help launch such a massive undertaking.
“We don’t have a big record company behind us to pay for any of this and we were very fortunate to have an Indiegogo crowdfunding thing to make this happen,” she said. “Otherwise we can’t possibly do it. The money wouldn’t be there to pay for 16 people, for a start, on top of everything else, and the recording. But we have the most incredible fans. I mean, you can tell by the looks on their faces on the video and just the way they reacted. But they followed us through, and they’ve helped us with a couple of the crowdfunding things that we did.”
Haslam has had a long and storied history in music, but that is something that she never would have predicted.
“When I was six, I was thrown out of the school choir for singing too loud, so I didn’t think I was going to be a singer,” she said.
The new 50th anniversary set is sure to please the band’s longtime fans and for those who aren’t familiar with Renaissance, it’s a great point of entry to a vast back catalog. Renaissance inhabits a special place in the history of symphonic progressive music. It is, perhaps more than any other, a rock band with music perfectly suited for orchestral arrangement and accompaniment. And it’s a band that will leave a lasting legacy when it’s played its last note and Haslam’s final vocal crescendo has been sung.
“We’ve always been unique,” Haslam said. “This music, there’s nothing like it. I’m very proud of everything we’ve done.”
To order 50th Anniversary - Ashes are Burning - an Anthology - Live in Concert with The Renaissance Chamber Orchestra, either autographed or unsigned, go here.
To check out Annie’s artwork, go here.
You can check out my full interview with Annie below, and please accept my apologies for some of the technical glitches, as Annie’s video froze up momentarily a few times during the Zoom call. Despite that, her personality shines through wonderfully.