I am currently reading "Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music" by Rob Young. It's brilliantly well-written, a very compelling read, and covers the roots of the folk revival in the late 19th century and early 20th century and its connection to the folk-rock music of the 60s and 70s and its descendants today. He takes a close look at familiar artists like Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Pentangle, Nick Drake and so on, but also talks about people who were less familiar (to me at any rate), like Vashti Bunyan. I have just spent a very happy hour on YouTube looking up her music and Amazon will undoubtedly be even better off as a result of that. This is one of the few books where I've sat with a notebook in hand while reading it, to remind me to look up various things on the net.

Highly recommended for Mudcatters.