Gather in the Mushrooms / Acid Folk

Subject: Gather in the Mushrooms
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 09 Jul 10 - 07:12 AM

I searched for a thread on Acid Folk and was surprised not to find one!

Anyhoo, the thread title is borrowed from a cheap as chips anthology (£3.50) I got off Amazon yesterday, subtitled 'The British Acid Folk Underground 1968-1974'
It's really quite charming and evocative: Eat Me...

As there appears to be no other threads on the topic, I just thought I'd invite general discussion about the Acid Folk scene really:
Favourite bands or albums from that scene, anecdotes from the period and so-on? And the title begged to be used..

Subject: RE: Gather in the Mushrooms / Acid Folk
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 09 Jul 10 - 07:21 AM

You'd probably get more hits with Psychedelic folk

Subject: RE: Gather in the Mushrooms / Acid Folk
From: the Folk Police
Date: 09 Jul 10 - 08:35 AM

... ah! This is where the late lamented "The Unbroken Circle" website would have come in handy. A veritable trawl through the mists of time to bring you obscure forgotten jewels from the late sixties and early seventies.

In the meantime Gerald Van Waes' psychedelic folk pages are well worth a visit.

As for favourite albums? Try this for starters:

COB: Moyshe McStiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart (the absolute best - probably my all time favourite album)
Incredible String Band: The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
Forest: Forest and Full Circle
Dr Strangely Strange: Kip of the Serenes
Mellow Candle: Swaddling Songs
Donovan: second disc of A Gift from a Flower to A Garden
Pearls Before Swine: Balaklava
Shelagh McDonald: Stargazer
Mark Fry: Dreaming with Alice
Mr Fox: The Gypsy (psych/trad crossover... tasty!)
Bread, Love and Dreams: Amaryllis
Comus: First Utterance (scary!)
Trees - The Garden of Jane Delawney and On The Shore
Dando Shaft: Lantaloon
There are loads of other bands and artists who did a handful (or less) of great psych-folk tracks on otherwise undistinguished albums. There are also a lot of seriously rare, seriously crap albums out there that secondhand dealers attempt to pass off as psych folk.

My introduction to the genre was the wonderful series of mixtape CDrs, "Lammas Night Laments" that was a ssociated with the Unbroken Circle.

Subject: RE: Gather in the Mushrooms / Acid Folk
From: Jack Campin
Date: 09 Jul 10 - 06:48 PM

There's a lot of http://www.theunbrokencircle.co.uk on the Wayback Machine at archive.org. It's a bugger to search through, as always.

The only one of the albums "the Folk Police" mentioned that I heard when it came out was the ISB one. Which outwore its welcome fairly quickly. What I preferred to listen to when on acid was J.S. Bach (the cello suites, or on one occasion the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor for organ, with enormous drops of blood slowly oozing through the ceiling) or contemporary music like Webern, Maxwell Davies or Ligeti.

A friend of mine claimed that given enough nitrous oxide even Joe Cocker sounded psychedelic. For me, the stuff made whatever you were listening to sound like Stockhausen's "Hymnen".

Subject: RE: Gather in the Mushrooms / Acid Folk
From: open mike
Date: 09 Jul 10 - 08:33 PM

Psych-folk---
here are some related links..
Strange folk--http://www.amazon.co.uk/Strange-Folk-Various-Artists/dp/B000E0LLM2/ref=pd_sim_m_h__2

Nu folk, yester-folk,etc: (what's twindies?) http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/mar/18/features.musicmonthly6

Subject: RE: Gather in the Mushrooms / Acid Folk
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 10 Jul 10 - 11:45 AM

Eh, well I've decided I quite like Forest, but so far I don't think I like Mr. Fox.
Comus I have memories of from childhood, while COB I've heard some of, and they are out doing their own thing..
I enjoy the general Alice in wonderland fey whimsy, and it's good on a hot fevered day. The absence of blood oozing through the floorboards is a decided bonus too..

Subject: RE: Gather in the Mushrooms / Acid Folk
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 10 Jul 10 - 11:47 AM

PS thanks Mr. Folk Policeman for directions..

Subject: RE: Gather in the Mushrooms / Acid Folk
From: Judy Dyble
Date: 10 Jul 10 - 12:21 PM

I'm a tiny bit surprised to find Trader Horne left off that list from the Folk Police..... and indeed not to be on any of the psychedelic folk lists either....


must be another genre that no-one's thought up yet then...:-)

Subject: RE: Gather in the Mushrooms / Acid Folk
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 10 Jul 10 - 12:27 PM

Off crop circle hunting in Wiltshire shortly (I'm not really a croppie but Mr.Crow is). Methinks Acid Folk will definitely have be the soundtrack to our adventures..

Subject: RE: Gather in the Mushrooms / Acid Folk
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 10 Jul 10 - 12:56 PM

"I'm a tiny bit surprised to find Trader Horne left off that list"

Eh, well they are on the anthology which inspired this thread: Morning Way

Subject: RE: Gather in the Mushrooms / Acid Folk
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 11 Jul 10 - 01:18 PM

Dr Strangely Strange: Kip of the Serenes

The Good Doctor remains in rude health; Kip is a masterwork, Heavy Petting likewise, although less of the folk or the acid in their second outing, just a wholesome rockin' sound. Both are reportedly heavy on Ritalin, giving rise to such classics as Dr Dim and Dr Strange. Also essential is Halcyon Days, which gathers up unreleased tracks from the Golden Era with a booklet of encyclopedic dimensions that will clarify your mind or else blow it entirely at the wonder of it all - much as Luca Ferrari did in his exhaustive Third Ear Band - Necromancers of the Drifting West.

Are the Third Ear Band acid folk? I believe the term Acid Raga was used at one point to describe their music, and acid drenched it certainly is. Leader Glen 'Zen' Sweeney (RIP) called them a Pop Group, though no doubt with a wry-trickster twinkle in his eye given their violin / cello /oboe / handdrums lineup and repertoir of entirely improvised instrumentals drawing on medieval, alchemical, universal influences which could move audience members to orgasm or suicide or else to embrace the secrets of the Tao or the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

For all things Third Ear related check Luca's Ghetto Raga blog which provides a fascinating glimpse into a long vanished era and a long vanished music...

Subject: RE: Gather in the Mushrooms / Acid Folk
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 11 Jul 10 - 03:53 PM

Surely there is still an acid folk genre? Not my bag as it is not folk (1954) but I think it exists.

Subject: RE: Gather in the Mushrooms / Acid Folk
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 11 Jul 10 - 04:07 PM

"Surely there is still an acid folk genre?"

There does seem to be fair crop of young bands at the mo' inspired by the likes of Trees and Paul Giovani's Wicker Man soundtrack. I don't know if they generally self reference as Acid or Psych Folk, but similar fey stylings and cultural references may be witnessed.

Subject: RE: Gather in the Mushrooms / Acid Folk
From: the Folk Police
Date: 12 Jul 10 - 06:19 AM

There have been plenty of artists around over the past ten or so years inspired/influenced by this sort of music, ranging from the sublime to the unlistenable. To these ears, some of the best have included In Gowan Ring, Fit and Limo, Espers, Feathers, Nick Castro, Kitchen Cynics and Pamela Wyn Shannon. My gripe is that some of the other post-Wicker Man wyrd-folkies are trying to hard to be experimental at the expense of a decent tune. And don't get me started on the self-indulgement, self-referential and frankly tedious world of "neo-folk"!

Judy D - no offence intended! My list was created off the top of my head with no reference to my rcord collection, which does indeed include a copy of the Trader Horne album. I also missed Spirogyra, Heron, Dulcimer, Stone Angel, Tudor Lodge and many more. "Morning Way" is a wonderful song. Thank you for it!

Subject: RE: Gather in the Mushrooms / Acid Folk
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 12 Jul 10 - 10:14 AM

"I'm a tiny bit surprised to find Trader Horne"

Tsk, I didn't realise that Judy there was in fact the frontman for Trader Horne.. as well doing lots of other stuff.

How about a few colourful anecdotes then, hey? ;-)

Subject: RE: Gather in the Mushrooms / Acid Folk
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 13 Jul 10 - 04:43 AM

How could I bring the Third Ear Band in without a mention of their legendary lost final album? Featuring psychedelic troubadour Mike Marchant boldly declaiming his folk-styled lyrics based on The Tarot (I kid ye not), this is a concept album of songs, although the instrumental arrangements are typically free & acid drenched - albeit with bass and synths alongside the oboe, violin and handdrums. Needless to say Island Records felt the album unsuitable for release at the time and it lay on the shelves for over thirty years until in finally saw the light of day in 2004 as The Magus, finding immediate favour as a lost classic of the genre, with at least one track featured on Mark Coyle's Lammas Night Lamments compilation CD-Rs.

Several tracks can be heard on YouTube, including:

I the Key

The Magus

Subject: RE: Gather in the Mushrooms / Acid Folk
From: Judy Dyble
Date: 13 Jul 10 - 08:00 AM

'Tsk, I didn't realise that Judy there was in fact the frontman for Trader Horne.. as well doing lots of other stuff.

How about a few colourful anecdotes then, hey? ;-)'

Just go and look here
http://www.judydyble.com

there are quite a few interviews on there with enough anecdotes to keep you busy for a few minutes. Plus all my current and recent activities...

That's a bit of shameless self-promo isn't it? :-)

Judy

Subject: RE: Gather in the Mushrooms / Acid Folk
From: Acorn4
Date: 13 Jul 10 - 11:53 AM

As the original performer of "Gather in the Mushrooms", does Benny Hill deserve the title of inventor of acid folk?