Wee Tam & The Big Huge

"Wee Tam and the Big Huge" is the fourth album by the Incredible String Band, released on the Elektra label in Europe as both a double LP and separate single LPs in November 1968. In the US, however, the two discs were released separately as Wee Tam and The Big Huge. The album is considered by many to be, along with its predecessor The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, the best work the band ever produced. Consisting of a very varied selection of songs by Robin Williamson and Mike Heron, with intriguing and poetic lyrics, the album is rich with eclectic and adept instrumentation and arrangements. Around 15 instruments are featured, played mainly by the two band members Williamson and Heron but also, in supporting roles, on a few tracks by Rose Simpson and Licorice McKechnie. It was a first for the band in that it was recorded as an ensemble, i.e. with less overdubs than before and much more use of Rose Simpson and Licorice McKechnie, (girlfriends of the two respective songwriters at that time). Williamson explained the title as follows:- "I saw a man with a huge big dog, and we knew somebody called Wee Tam, in Edinburgh. It seemed like it was a good idea in terms of one person looking up at the stars - Wee Tam and the Big Huge, just like the vastness of the universe."