Duncan Browne is a great Baroque-folk-pop artist... I also recently discovered someone else in this area of tasty British folk-pop: Clifford T. Ward who has several great albums but I'm especially blown away by one called "Home Thoughts From Abroad" Which I have no doubt would appeal to anyone who likes Al Stewart or really well done folk-pop.

As for Al Stewarts a few gems I'd recommend from his catalog (besides Modern Times and the obvious Year Of The Cat) would be:

Between the Wars: Done with Laurence Juber who used to be in Wings, this is a strong Django-flavored album (Though in a pop context.) musically capturing the period between the WW1 & WW2

Past, Present and Future: The first big album Al had... it's worth having for "Roads to Moscow" alone. An epic track with a haunting narrative.

Last Days Of The Century: The one and only Al-bum that featured synthesizers, but IMO done very tastefully and has Al's own stab at Powerpop "Antarctica"... actually I think it's one of his best albums song-wise.

24 C/Parrots: OK, I take that back, this is probably his most powerpop-ish album.
but one that I find the production a little clunky.... It's probably the stark contrast of it being the first non Alan Parsons ultra-clean-and-shiny production. Still I think it's good song-wise.


> A few years ago, Michael Roux burned me some of his favorite tracks, spanning a 
> good portion of his career. This was around the time I discovered the first two 
> Duncan Browne albums, and was really attuned to delicate British folk pop. And 
> Al Stewart, like Browne, is a fabulous guitarist. 
> 
> I've picked up a couple of Stewart albums, and find his early work to be 
> excellent. 
> 
> Mike Bennett