Having lived in a number of villages I have to say I hate village life. And there's the key I suppose - for village life to work I reckon you have to be born to it, and everyone else as well. Having been born on a housing estate & lived in cities, where the only people I had anything to do with were immediate neighbours, friends and family, I have to say I do enjoy the anonymity of greater humanity who don't even know I exist let alone chose to concern myself with my business.

The Idyll remains as a yearning for simpler times, like folk music in a way. That said I would dearly love to live in an old house in the country entirely remote from other people. We do that when we go on holiday - where we can gaze at the skies & make as much noise as we like. But we're too used to local amenities, things like shops, supermarkets, regular buses, trams, trains, libraries, doctors, dentists, Subways, chemists, cinemas, Wetherspoons, Harvesters, hospitals, decent TV reception, wi-fi, land lines, gas and neighbours who would be there in a crisis, but leave you alone the rest of the time...   

That said, even though I lived on a housing estate for the first 17 years of my life, I think I'd rather live in a village. The worst village is preferable to that. For me it's either town / city life - or else totally remote in the middle of nowhere - and out with my gun in the morning!

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No chords in English music? The pastoral English tradition is best examplified in rock 'n' roll's essentially modal nature, which really beefs up with chords & harmonies. Word is these guys are booked in The Village Hall for a Christmas residency:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WfoccRna6I