Among the many attractions at the show will be a Really High Class Band

As with Times & Traditions, my appreciation of this album is very sentimental / personal, though there's something utterly beguiling about the instrumentation. Sue Harris was folk's other oboe player (I still think of the Third Ear Band as folk) and the instrumental combination alone make this album quite unique. Worth seeking out on vinyl for the cover alone really - Times & Traditions likewise, the first side of which is about as about as perfect as it gets really, if only for the sound of the little Michael Lynch hurdy-gurdy. Sonically it's a Bill Leader masterpiece, but whilst Jake's Follow the Plough and Two Brothers touch on some genuine magic, his Bogie's Bonny Belle & Song of Wandering Aengus are so much syrupy shite really.

I find it a bit distasteful myself, but I may be over-sensitive -

BBB was one of the first Traditional Songs I started singing 35 years ago & I still sing it today. Indeed, Ron Baxter honoured me with a beer-mat sketch of it after I sang it at The Steamer a few years back & the drawing on cover of the redoutable John Kelly's very splendid For Honour & Promotion album comes from a similar tribute... Thing is though, these sort of Revival Folk albums took a back seat once I discovered the delights of 'the real thing' via the records of Seamus Ennis, Davie Stewart, Bob Roberts, Harry Cox et al, which I began picking up in the late 70s / early 80s. So you might imagine my utter delight just last month to discover the Lomax recording of Davie Stewart singing Bogie's Bonny Belle over at Cultural Equity.

http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=12506

Perfection!

*

Jim Eldon - I Wish There was No Prisons

Quite possibly the best slab of revival folk vinyl money can buy - or could buy. Recorded in 1983 it's probably a little late for the 70s remit, but the combination of Jim Eldon and Bill Leader is just too much really... Truly a match made in heaven.