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16 May 12 - 03:12 PM (#3351690) Subject: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards I stopped listening to folk around the time punk was getting interesting and Steeleye Span were getting boring, and started again some time in this millennium. So... what have I missed? Here are some of the albums I do know about (and rate highly): Peter Bellamy, Fair England's Shore Tony Capstick, Does a Turn Martin Carthy, Landfall Shirley Collins, Amaranth Nic Jones, The Noah's Ark Trap Tony Rose, Young Hunting June Tabor, Airs and Graces Mike and Lal Waterson, Bright Phoebus Who else - and which other albums - ought to be on that list? I should say that I've pretty much got Peter Bellamy, Tony Capstick, Nic Jones and Tony Rose covered - either I've got everything they recorded or I know what I haven't got (and intend to get it). Apart from them, you can basically assume that if I haven't listed it I don't know it. |
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16 May 12 - 03:19 PM (#3351693) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards Some of those are probably from before 1970, but never mind. And my personal chronology doesn't really work either - punk was '76 after all... Oh well - let's just say I never got properly into folk the first time round and go from there. |
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16 May 12 - 03:21 PM (#3351696) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Big Al Whittle You realise you're talking about a period of twenty five to thirty years......? |
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16 May 12 - 03:51 PM (#3351710) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Gurney 'Jump at the Sun,' John Kirkpatrick. 'Nowt So Good'll Pass,' Bob Fox and Stu Luckly. |
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16 May 12 - 04:47 PM (#3351725) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray Two of my personal favourites: Among the many attractions at the show will be a Really High Class Band - John Kirkpatrick & Sue Harris Times and Traditions for Dulcimer - Roger Nicholson, Jake Walton and Andrew Cronshaw |
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16 May 12 - 06:09 PM (#3351767) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Big Al Whittle too weird Phil....there were hundreds, well thousands of really good albums between those years. If you missed them - I'm sorry. But thinnk of all the stuff between 1950 and 1975 - what you're asking is even more daunting. It was a time when not just the privileged few recorded their music - but loads of people , some in the first home recording studios - some in the first cheap four track and eight track studios. All I can tell you is that you missed some great stuff - wouldn't like to even start to work it out. I used to love a song by the Celebrated Radcliff Stout Band about John Clare, the poet. Doubt if that ever even got broadcast. For a while I ran a little 8 track studio. I met musicians of astonishing brilliance, who never rated even a gig at the local folk club. |
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16 May 12 - 06:41 PM (#3351778) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards I think you may be overthinking this, Al. All I'm saying is, if you rate two or three of the albums on that list as Albums Everyone Should Hear, then what else would you rate equally highly and for similar reasons? Not 1971-9 necessarily, but say 1965-85. Suibhne: Times and Traditions for Dulcimer That looks interesting - or rather (in case that sounds like damning with faint praise) that looks very interesting. John Kelly recorded "Bogie's Bonny Belle" last year, and from his sleevenotes he loves it; I find it a bit distasteful myself, but I may be over-sensitive - I've never really liked those 'maidenhead' songs (Ups and Downs, Cold Haily Windy Night &c). Among the many attractions at the show will be a Really High Class Band - John Kirkpatrick & Sue Harris Blimey, that looks good. Exactly the kind of thing I'm asking about. |
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16 May 12 - 06:49 PM (#3351783) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards Gurney - interesting stuff. This Kirkpatrick fellow (of whom I had heard...) is going to repay some investigation. |
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16 May 12 - 06:56 PM (#3351789) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Leadfingers The Incredible String band , First Album when Clive Palmer was still with them , and Five thousand Spirits just the duo before they went Airy Fariy ! (Just MY opinion) And any of the English Country Blues Band - Trad English set to American Tunes ! But as Al says , thats a HELL of a lot of good stuff , and a lot of it didnt get out on C D either ! |
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16 May 12 - 07:14 PM (#3351798) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards Now I've got Five Thousand Spirits, as it goes, and if that's before they went airy fairy... The ECBB are going on the list, though. (There's even a CD.) Keep 'em coming! |
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16 May 12 - 07:15 PM (#3351800) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Reinhard Kirkpatrick & Harris's five Topic LPs including Among the Many Attractions... are available as digial downloads. |
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16 May 12 - 07:32 PM (#3351807) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker my favourite - Shirley & Dolly Collins - "LOVE, DEATH & THE LADY" also from the late 60s - Dave and Toni Arthur - "THE LARK IN THE MORNING / MORNING STANDS ON TIPTOE" |
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16 May 12 - 08:07 PM (#3351821) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Bobert Paul Seibel John Stewart Bruce Springsteen, yeah, just gotta hunt... Teagarten and Van Winkle B~ |
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17 May 12 - 01:14 AM (#3351879) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Gurney Bobert, if he gets onto the American stuff he missed, this thread will go on forever.... Be good, though! His taste runs to English trad (-ish) and that genre, judging from the stuff he knows he likes. |
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17 May 12 - 03:00 AM (#3351893) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards His taste runs to English trad (-ish) and that genre, judging from the stuff he knows he likes. Zackly. On Dave & Toni Arthur, I'd heard "Hearken to the Witches' Rune" & found it a bit pretentious, but the earlier stuff sounds interesting. On the list it goes. Toni Arthur (nee Wilson) has remarried and is now Toni Arthur-Hay, incidentally. Presumably she didn't revert to her maiden name to avoid confusion. |
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17 May 12 - 03:35 AM (#3351897) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Big Al Whittle The guys that really punched a hole in trad song were Cosmotheka. Suddenly we were hearing all the songs our grandparents sang to us. I remember in the 1970's, ian Campbell said to me - they were the single most important shift, and alternative vision - because they were in fact saying English folksong is not locked in libraries - its in the psyche of the English people. Not that they would have said any of that - they were instinctive geniuses. They were a superb act. They really related to audiences. And it was such an individual vision. But mention of Ian, reminds me of a lovely solo album that Lorna did. And of course Carthy and McTell seemed to carry on developing and honing their skills and techniniqes during those years. I know nothing of their personal lives, but they seemed to have some stability in them that evaded people like John Martyn and Bert jansch. the other thing that happened was digital recording. It suddenly became possible to hear Hank Williams, Robert Johnson and other people without that sound of fried eggs in the background. Clean recordings. And electronic instruments and good guitar transducers - so it became possible to sit in a folk club and hear what Martin Carthy was playing. And electronic tuners - no more arguments about who was in tune ('I've got perfect pitch! Aye! go and stick it under a steam roller!) |
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17 May 12 - 03:55 AM (#3351900) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST Frankie Armstrong - Lovely on the Water Ray Fisher - The Bonny Birdy Dave Burland - Dalesman's Litany Muckram Wakes - A Map of Derbyshire Derek and Dorothy Elliot - First album John Goodluck - The Suffolk Miracle Jim Eldon - I Wish There was No Prisons Lots of others too which I may add when I've had a think. Reinhard's site is a great resource for reading about this sort of thing (and listening to samples): Mainly Norfolk. My view would be if you dig out one of the above, make it the Ray Fisher. I think Frankie A has been reissued. The rest are probably eBay jobbies, though I could bring some of them to the Beech to lend you if you have a record player and promise not to bite them or leave them on the bus or anything. |
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17 May 12 - 03:58 AM (#3351901) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe Me above. Also The Bitter and the Sweet by Roy Harris which I have a copy of courtesy of Suibhne, who came round to my house the other week bearing 'spare' vinyl... |
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17 May 12 - 04:49 AM (#3351907) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards SC - there is no such thing as 'spare' vinyl! (Although if anyone's in the market for a mixed lot of 90s electronica 12"s which I keep meaning to put up on eBay...) There are a bazillion albums listed on Reinhard's amazing site (and that's an imperial bazillion, too). But that's why I was looking for personal recommendations - just to give me a way in. Some good names on that list. Dave Burland is someone I keep meaning to investigate - I could listen to him singing the phone book, he's one of those lucky bastahemindividuals with a naturally beautiful voice. Ray Fisher and John Goodluck are new names to me, which is rather exciting. The two albums that sparked this off were Landfall (when I finally heard it) and one other which I still haven't heard & which nobody's mentioned yet, slightly to my surprise - although on checking it turns out it was released in 1964, which is stretching the 1970s to breaking point. |
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17 May 12 - 05:08 AM (#3351912) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray 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. |
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17 May 12 - 05:39 AM (#3351924) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Fossil "Summer Solstice" - Maddy Prior and Tim Hart. Nothing like it anywhere, ever. |
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17 May 12 - 06:15 AM (#3351937) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards Damn - I passed over a vinyl copy of that just the other day. Mind you, I passed it over in favour of a copy of Landfall, so I didn't do too badly. |
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17 May 12 - 07:09 AM (#3351964) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray there is no such thing as 'spare' vinyl! In my nomadic life I've lost more vinyl than I care to remember. I've given lots away, sold it, lost entire boxes in transit and yet still the urge to buy more persists, as does maintaining the equipment to play it on. I often end up with duplicates - like the Noah's Ark Trap, though I passed both of those on because I've never been such a huge Nic Jones fan myself, although I used to enjoy seeing him live. I've lately returned all the Bellamy vinyl I had on long-term loan from Greenoaken Towers, but I cherish my copies of Second Wind (bought remaindered from Cecil Sharp House in the early 90s) and Keep on Kipling which I regard as Bellamy's masterpiece (in its vinyl form anyway - shame the CD reissue messed it up with extraneous session takes). I won it off PB in a raffle at the Bay Hotel Folk Club, Cullercoats around 1988 or so & PB reckoned, with some sincerity, that it was the best thing he'd ever done. I've also got a signed copy of The Transports on which PB has drawn a Quantas flag on the transport ship. Oddly I didn't ask him to sign KOK; I was just too in awe really... The CD versions feel little better than tape copies really. Worth mentioning is Martin Carthy's Because it's There from 1979. Apart from one song (a pointless inclusion of Gilbert O'Sullivan's Nothing Rhymed) this is one of the perfect folk albums of that decade. And a big YES to Ray Fisher too - track down Willie's Lady if you can; but The Bonny Birdy is such stuff as dreams are made on. And, of course, The Battle of the Field - the only other truly great English Folk Rock LP (IMHO) though both Mr Fox albums give it a run for its money. |
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17 May 12 - 07:19 AM (#3351968) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Gerry So, wait a minute - are you only interested in UK artists? and only in traditional material? can't interest you in a little Stan Rogers? Bill Staines? Eric Bogle? Kate Wolf? Art Thieme? |
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17 May 12 - 07:24 AM (#3351970) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards The Battle of the Field Passed over a copy of *that* the other day, too. - the only other truly great English Folk Rock LP You may need to spell this out! |
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17 May 12 - 07:29 AM (#3351972) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards are you only interested in UK artists? and only in traditional material? At the moment (on this thread), yes. can't interest you in a little Stan Rogers? Stan Rogers was wonderful. For now I want to stick to British traddies, though. |
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17 May 12 - 07:47 AM (#3351973) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Dave Sutherland Have I missed it or should Dick Gaughan's "No More Forever" be included here? |
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17 May 12 - 09:14 AM (#3352005) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker .. how many shopping days left till Xmas ??? no sign of decorations and trimmings in the local shopping centre yet, but might as well mention: The Young Tradition & Shirley And Dolly Collins "The Holly Bears The Crown" [1969] one of the best crimbo LPs ever !!! |
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17 May 12 - 10:07 AM (#3352023) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Victor Mourning As has been mentioned this is a massive subject, but as a tangent to the Incredible String Band suggestion, one that's been growing on me lately is the Sun Also Rises LP from 1970. They were definitely ISB influenced, but in a good way, sort of "ISB Lite". It's one of those LPs that might not grab you at first but gets a bit richer with repeated plays. Oh, and the group name is a pun of sorts. The group is fronted by a couple surnamed Hemingway... Steve Canner The Victor Mourning Maryville, Tennessee http://www.thevictormourning.com |
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17 May 12 - 01:16 PM (#3352095) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Reinhard one other which I still haven't heard & which nobody's mentioned yet, slightly to my surprise - although on checking it turns out it was released in 1964 Shirley Collins and Davy Graham's Folk Roots, New Routes? |
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17 May 12 - 01:48 PM (#3352100) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST I liked the unique sound of Blondel. |
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17 May 12 - 01:53 PM (#3352103) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Tug the Cox Sorry, cookie neede re-setting. |
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17 May 12 - 02:10 PM (#3352104) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards Reinhard - Correct! Steve - listening to the SAR on Youtube reminded me of an odd little skit Victoria Wood wrote years ago. It was an ad for bras for men, and it opened with a male presenter saying "Want to wear a bra - but you don't want to wear a women's bra?" I love flutes and bongoes and harmonies and drones and twangly acoustic instruments - I use them all myself. But I can't stand that psychedelic ISB sound; it turns me right off. ("Want to play drifty flute-and-bongoes folk music - but you don't want to play hippie drifty flute-and-bongoes folk music?") |
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17 May 12 - 02:31 PM (#3352113) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker 2 more of my favourites - more 'folkish' than 'folk'.. Dando Shaft - various CD sets Carolanne Pegg - solo LP - "Carolanne Pegg" Found her musicassette for about 50p in late 70s then the tape self destructed sometime mid 80s... finally got to enjoy it again with 90s CD release. |
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17 May 12 - 02:46 PM (#3352118) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,David E. Steve Ashley's "Stroll On" is still wonderful. That's 70's and English and folk. David E. |
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17 May 12 - 03:00 PM (#3352123) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker .. actually I've just listened to some Dando Shaft for the first time in about 5 or 6 years since I boxed the CDs away, and I'm not sure I even like it myself anymore ??? Taking into account youtube sound quality, the tracks do sound a bit of an incoherrent mess.. oh well... |
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17 May 12 - 03:18 PM (#3352130) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray I liked the unique sound of Blondel. Yay! I love the Amazing Blondel - but without Gladwin it just wasn't the same, was it? Mind you, Gladwin was never the same with Wincott & Baird so it cuts both ways. Strange then that their finest album was their 1997 re-union album Restoration which really is the most perfect 70s folk album ever made & all new material too. Go figure... Some nice live sets out there too (Corner of a Foreign Field, Live in Transylvania and 20-minutes of a BBC In Concert set on The Harvest of Gold : The English Fok Almanac double set on Dejavu which they share with Fairport, Steeleye Span and Magna Carta). Seeing we're on this road - do the Strawbs count? As with the Amazing Blondel there's no trad material as such (though I do have a near perfect Cousins-rendering of Banks of the Nile from the early sixties) as such but along with Gladwin, Dave Cousins has one of the iconic voices of Englishe Country(side) Musick... If he did get round to doing an album of traditional material you just know it would be amazing, just as long as he didn't rock it up too much. He even wrote a song for The Young Tradition once (a weird pastiche of the Beatles Paperback Writer called Where Is This Dream of Your Youth?) but I think they politely, and wisely, declined. The classics: Grave New World Two Weeks Last Summer Hero and Heroine (Dragonfly would be in there two if it wasn't for ghastly The Vision of the Lady of the Lake which is one ill-advised overlong re-write of Tam Lin too far. Otherwise - a great acoustic album with some of the best folk cello ever from Claire Deniz.) * Can I use this opportunity to crave a minute's respectful silence for the passing of the archetype / institution that is Strawhead? Friday nights in The Euston Ballroom will never be the same again. Gregg Butler - another iconic English voice as well as top geezer and national treasure. |
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17 May 12 - 04:05 PM (#3352138) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe I like a bit of drifty flute'n'bongo meself... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlfWVDtyPUs |
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17 May 12 - 04:33 PM (#3352146) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray Try this (which you'll probably love anyway): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_i9z_XKuNA |
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17 May 12 - 04:37 PM (#3352150) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: MGM·Lion Bob and Carole Pegg; John Faulkner & Sandra Kerr [indeed all the Critics Group]; The Boys of the Lough; Planxty; The Bothy Band; The Watersons; the Young Tradition; Tim Hart & Maddy Prior's Folk Songs of Old England; Robin & Barry Dransfield... |
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17 May 12 - 07:17 PM (#3352192) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards Michael - can you be less specific? I know that all those people exist[ed], but what I'm looking for on this thread is recommendations for particular albums that people love dearly: if you like Landfall you've got to hear... Everyone else: Oi! Traddies please! (Strawhead... how did I not know about Strawhead?) |
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17 May 12 - 08:06 PM (#3352204) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Big Al Whittle I liked rubber Records - Brimstons's pink album called very good time Also Tony Capstick did this wonderful half spoken version of the song - you spoke the first word John Brown on the sampler - there was this bloke.. I also love the Punch and Judy Man by him - loved The Bonny Bunch of Roses onn that record. John connolly says he prefers Capsticks version of the title track to all the others. Though having said that the Yetties did a wonderful green album with that one on , and Pete Shutler playing a beautiful electronic keyboard. paddy reilly who later joined the Dubliners - he did some great albums. Wonderful voice. Tommy Dempsey's Album Green Grow the Laurel was pretty special - as is Tommy. Its like I say - you could go on all night. And Christy moore of course! |
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17 May 12 - 10:32 PM (#3352249) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Ross Campbell Of the Planxty voices, I still prefer Andy Irvine, closely followed by Paul Brady in traditional mode - their duo album was one of my favourites back then. Paul Brady's "Welcome Here, Kind Stranger" also a favourite from the same period. Also "The Missing Liberty Tapes" is a live rendering of material from that album. In June Andy Irvine proposes to celebrate his seventieth (!) birthday with a bunch of his former colleagues [Sweeney's Men, Mozaik, Andy & Paul, LAPD (Liam O'Flynn, Andy, Donal Lunny, Paddy Glackin)]in a couple of concerts in Dublin http://www.andyirvine.com/calendar.html I haven't heard ALL the albums he has been connected with, but I reckon any one of them could be recommended. Andy Irvine was also one of the band who backed the Silly Sisters (Maddy Prior and June Tabor) on tour and on record (1976). Recommended. Also in that band were Nic Jones (already recommended above): Tony Hall, an extremely talented and relaxed player of the melodeon from East Anglia, whose albums of tunes and songs are worth a listen (Fieldvole Music, 1977): Johnny Moynihan, who for better or worse introduced the bouzouki to Irish music, and an associate of Andy Irvine's in Sweeney's Men - I wish there was an album from him! and Liam O'Flynn (many solo albums - one of the most lyrical of the uilleann pipers - as well as his traditional material, Shaun Davey wrote several orchestral suites to feature Liam's piping "The Brendan Voyage" still a favourite, though "The Pilgrim" and "Granuaille" also recommended. Suibhne mentioned Strawhead and the redoubtable Gregg Butler. Apart from the thirty-eight years of Strawhead material and a twenty-year-old album for the last Preston Guild, as far as I know Gregg's only other recording credit is on the Shirley Collins/Albion Country Band "No Roses" album which I don't think anyone has mentioned yet - highly recommended. Neil Wayne produced a series of great albums on the Free Reed label in the seventies, including Peter Bellamy's "Transports" which you have no doubt come across. Many of those albums are classics of the period, now once more available in re-mastered form. "Plain Capers" features John Kirkpatrick and others on an album of Morris tunes. Recommended. I could go on - but I'm nursing a cold and I should go back to bed. Good luck with the search and good listening! Ross |
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18 May 12 - 02:38 AM (#3352290) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Alan Day Rosbif Traditional Dance music from Central France and Bouree a Six Al |
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18 May 12 - 04:42 AM (#3352324) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray Oi! Traddies please! Like Bright Phoebus you mean? That's what happens when the Trad meme sparks in the sparkling hearts of creative souls in the inventive vats of Popular Music. Phoebus is the risen glory of its era whose light shines on eternally, but no more so than ISB, Strawbs, Amazing Blondel et al whose contribution to Folk is vast. And my favourite track on Phoebus is the perverted rockabilly Danny Rose which maybe prefigures what Jim Eldon did on Loaded Dice and The Sharpshooters album with Custom Car Kid, though with less bathos. Times (late at night, muttering in my cups) I might wish Folk had left Trad well alone really; I could live without the humpty-dumpty macrame beat makeovers and the crazy juxapositions of the old & new - Airs and Graces always did my head in, and Because it's There features a Gilbert and Sullivan song FFS. Hardly the wonder I started listening exclusively to the old guys... I still reckon The Battle of the Field is a top album though; I note that Vic & Bob must be onto it too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y04Qb9bLub4 (Strawhead... how did I not know about Strawhead?) Stawhead were doing the FC rounds in the mid-seventies when I first started crossing the murky threshold. I think I first saw them at The Bay Hotel in Cullercoats in 76 or so, where the Whitley Bay Guardian billed them as 'Medieval'. They came in somewhere around the St. George's Canzona* meets Amazing Blondel but were unlike anything I'd ever heard. They inspired a laege & devoted following who eagerly buying their innumerable albums. Friday nights at Fylde have always been Strawhead nights - we'd always go in to check the atmos which was always inspiring, with Ron Baxter as emcee; they will be sorely missed & bitterly mourned. * The Canzona teamed up with The Druids & others (including rhodes kind Dave MacCrae) to become Giles Farnaby's Dream Band for an eponymous LP of folk rock for Argo in 1973. But then there was GRYPHON and GENTLE GIANT so the zeitgeist was really kicking back then, which brings me back to Bright Phoebus. Anyway, all this folk talk is making me slightly queasy. I'm off to listen to some Rahsaan Roland Kirk whilst making my breakfast... |
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18 May 12 - 04:50 AM (#3352326) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Don Wise Lea Nicholson : "Horsemusic", "The Concertina Record" Pete & Chris Coe: "Out of Season,out of Rhyme", "The Game of All-Fours" The ISB were OK up to and including "Wee Tam and The Big Huge". After that I went off them. |
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18 May 12 - 06:51 AM (#3352361) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Mick Pearce (MCP) I'll throw in a few of my favourites of the time that haven't been mentioned yet (limiting myself!) The Dransfields: The Rout Of The Blues Louis Killen: Ballads and Broadsides Dick Gaughan A Handful of Earth and some of the North-Eastern ones: Along The Coaly Tyne Jack Elliott of Birtley and for a taster of a lot of traditional singers the two Topic records from the Folk Songs of Britain series: The Child Ballads, vol1 & 2 (And I always had a fondness for The City Waites - historical rather than traditional maybe, but with some songs you'll recognise from the tradition: The City Waites or A Goreous Gallery of Gallant Inventions). Mick |
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18 May 12 - 08:27 AM (#3352391) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker I'm now becoming wary of recomending LPs I've not listened to for any thing up to a decade because my tastes are constantly mutating and I might no longer like myself... Anyway, surprised no ones stated the obvious Anne Briggs yet..??? Anne Briggs - "Sing a Song for You" The long withheld 1973 recording that finally surfaced in the late 90's Some rumours say she wasn't happy with the sound of her voice; other rumours point to her not likeing the jumper she was photographed wearing for the front cover art. I definitely remember enjoying this CD last time I played it, but..... |
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18 May 12 - 09:31 AM (#3352415) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards One of the albums I started with, all of four or five years ago, was the Anne Briggs compilation; I went off it fairly quickly, though. (I don't like singers who lose the time or treat old material with breathy solemnity, & she did a bit of both.) Don - they're on the list. Wasn't it Lea Nicholson who played concertina on Pentangle's Lord Franklin? Suibhne - Like Bright Phoebus you mean? I did Red Wine & Promises at the Beech a couple of weeks back; I was planning to do Winifer Odd the other night but ended up doing Two Pretty Boys instead (it's all fun and frolics when I get started). But at the moment I'm on a musical spam diet - trad, trad, trad, trad, Bright Phoebus, trad, trad, trad, bit of MacColl, bit of Tawney, trad, the January Man and trad. I could live without the humpty-dumpty macrame beat makeovers and the crazy juxapositions of the old & new - Airs and Graces always did my head in and Because it's There features a Gilbert and Sullivan song FFS Well, this is it - this is why I started by saying "name me an album to stand alongside Landfall and Young Hunting", rather than "who was good in the 70s?". I love Airs and Graces - all except Gamekeepers (once you start hearing macrame-beat you can't unhear it) and the contemporary songs (I don't often want to listen to well-intentioned songs exposing the troubles of lifestyles the singer has never lived and experiences they've never had*). I think Landfall is great pretty much all the way through, but Carthy's a bit variable - as I discovered yesterday when I listened to "Byker Hill" (what is he doing to that song?) and "Poor murdered woman" (obvious pun resisted). So anyone who said "get some Martin Carthy/June Tabor, they're good" would be setting me up for some awful disappointments (alongside some brilliant stuff, I'm sure). Bellamy's different, for some reason. I guess it's that voice: even songs I don't much like sounded good from him (I'm smiling now just thinking of how he sang "Slip jigs and reels" (But he took MO-OST delight...). *In case somebody's going to ask me when I last shared the experiences of Lord Bateman or Musgrave, ISTM that the old songs are mostly about love, hate, trust, betrayal, sex, birth and death, in varying combinations. Hands up.) |
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18 May 12 - 09:58 AM (#3352419) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker fair enough.. I'm mostly listening to Reggae and Northern Soul this year.. But when I do start recording my own efforts it'll probably be trad folk with loads of vintage electronic instruments and valve amps informed by a 1950's rock 'n' roll studio ethos & methodology.. anyway Phil, thanks for starting this thread. The listed LPs here will be invaluable source of inspiration. |
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18 May 12 - 09:58 AM (#3352420) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe Talking Martin Carthy, much as I like Ladfill, the albums for me are Shearwater and the wonderful Prince Heathen. |
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18 May 12 - 09:59 AM (#3352421) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe Ladfill Hmmm... what would Freud have to say about that typo? |
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18 May 12 - 10:04 AM (#3352422) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker .. just remembered, when I was in a gigging punk band back in the late 70's my favourite home listening folk LPs were a couple of 1970's John Renbourn albums and his live concert bootleg cassette off BBC radio. |
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18 May 12 - 10:21 AM (#3352430) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards As I type I'm listening to Martin Carthy's Second Album (full title) & enjoying it greatly. He's even variable in being variable... Skimming the Carthy discography at Reinhard's site, I thought for a moment I saw a Vashti Bunyan LP called Just Another Damned Thing. I'd listen to that. |
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18 May 12 - 10:26 AM (#3352434) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray "Byker Hill" (what is he doing to that song?) Oh God. You know what? I love that album to bits. It's like Carthy & Swarb had this chemistry going on that even to this just lights up my heart. They revisited it back in the 80s which was nice enough but lacked the youthful punch. It's like what Kipling says: When your heart is young and gay And the season rules it -- Work your works and play your play 'Fore the Autumn cools it! Anyway, here they are doing it live in the old days: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3dJHy7mDck But then again I was introduced to this when I was 11 in some of the most truly bizarre circumstances I've ever found myself in, but even now I might listen to those early duo records and just howl at the moon. I feel the same way about most of the stuff I was turned onto back then - Hearken to the Witches Rune included. I fell in love with June Tabor when she broke my heart with The Plains of Waterloo when I was 14 or so. I'll never forget that, even though (in the same gig) I experienced utter bafflement at how a song like that could be sung alongside such utter shite as King of Rome and TBPWM. Allowing for personal taste, I say utter shite purely as a measure of my personal hatred of these songs, and others like them, which has to include January Man though at least there I got so far as recording a version for the abandoned Landfill Project. It didn't make me like it though. I too find Bellamy's lapses easier to forgive (Nostradamus & Death is not the End notwithstanding) and often find myself wondering how the Bellamy / Fairport band would have shaped up had it happened. To me the twin stars of Folk are Peter Bellamy and Jim Eldon - both embody the very essence of the muck, mire & stars which lead me hither in the first place; and even when Jim covers commonplace pop drivel it becomes transfigured into the pure folk-fertile earth. When he sings traditional songs, I know there is such a thing as arrival, and quite possibly God too; like listening Rahsaan or Rene Zosso or watching Pasolini's Canterbury Tales, it's real in a way so very few things are, especially in the fantasy realms of folk which attracts & repels in equal measure. I was once playing a June Tabor album and my flat-mate at the time asked what I was doing listening to Victoria Wood. I think it was Unicorns or something... Fortunately, I fell in with her all over again when I she sang Fine Horseman on TV a few years back (JT that is, not VW, though one might well imagine...) |
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18 May 12 - 10:34 AM (#3352437) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards Not so much replying as butting in here and there... - Hate King of Rome. In fact I don't even feel that strongly, I just can't see the point of it & many like it. Like January Man though. Where do you stand on Dust to Dust? - I just don't get the 9/8 Byker Hill. Maid on the Shore is top though. - I like Bellamy's DintE, almost enough to learn it. Nothing much as a song, great delivery though. - Victoria Wood could so cover Lal Waterson. Probably better that she doesn't, though. |
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18 May 12 - 11:10 AM (#3352446) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray Occasionally we do Ashes to Ashes as a warm up / soundcheck or in a session, & it's often occured to me to segue it into Dust to Dust, which reminds me of freezing nights in a Gateshead squat circa 1977 where it was too cold to think. It's an overwhelming impression that probably has nothing to do with the song; it's like His Name is Andrew - not quite so folk-earnest, but still integral to that era which charted with Matchstalk Men and Gaudete though obviously not in that order. It's a blur to tell you truth and at times maybe I'd rather not be reminded of it, but such is life; for me it lurks in the same hinterlands as 700 Elves, which is more like the landscapes Mark E Smith sang of in The Impression of J.Temperence and such like. The horror, the horror... |
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18 May 12 - 11:41 AM (#3352459) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray PS - A few years ago a folky friend in Durham sang Victoria Wood's Dinner Ladies song in a singaround (Day By Day) and it struck me as the thought of thing June Tabor might ought to do, though I didn't mention it to Linda, who wasn't at all impressed with JT's singing of Fine Horseman on BBC & leant us her copy of the Bright Phoebus CD to prove her point. That was weird - coming into contact with Phoebus for the first time since 1973 or so. But 30 years on it shone as brightly for me as ever it had back in the day when, aged 11, I fell in to folkery... In the words of Ren & Stimpy: Happy Happy Joy Joy. |
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18 May 12 - 06:49 PM (#3352634) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards Great folk LPs (that I've missed) from the 1970s and thereabouts: a preliminary list Peter Bellamy (and the Young Tradition): several Shirley Collins (with or without Dolly Collins): several Albion Country Band: the Battle of the Field Frankie Armstrong: Lovely on the Water Dave and Toni Arthur: Morning stands on tiptoe Dave Burland: Dalesman's Litany Martin Carthy: Prince Heathen (and others) Pete & Chris Coe: Out of Season,out of Rhyme The Dransfields: The Rout Of The Blues Jim Eldon: I Wish There was No Prisons Derek and Dorothy Elliot: first album Ray Fisher: The Bonny Birdy Bob Fox and Stu Luckly: Nowt So Good'll Pass Dick Gaughan: A Handful of Earth (and others) John Goodluck: The Suffolk Miracle Roy Harris: The Bitter and the Sweet Louis Killen: Ballads and Broadsides John Kirkpatrick & Sue Harris: Among the many attractions at the show will be a Really High Class Band (and others) Muckram Wakes: A Map of Derbyshire Lea Nicholson: Horsemusic Roger Nicholson, Jake Walton and Andrew Cronshaw: Times and Traditions for Dulcimer Maddy Prior and Tim Hart: Summer Solstice That's 20, which is probably enough to be getting on with... but if anyone wants to nominate the Watersons album (to name but one), or ask how I could possibly have overlooked the great Frank Fonebone, have at it! |
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19 May 12 - 05:47 AM (#3352762) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray Frost and Fire. But in its vinyl version. Word is they got much of that stuff (Gower Wassail, Padstow, The Souling Song, Herod & the Cock, Jolly Old Hawk etc.) off John 'Jack' Langstaff. Can that possibly be true??? |
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19 May 12 - 05:55 AM (#3352768) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Big Al Whittle Its funny really - you look down that lot and notwithstanding the quality represented therein - you can help but realise the nation had been lost. For the vast majority of the population, folk music was the Spinners, The Corries, Fivepenny Piece (all of which had TV series), England's folkrock contingent - Lindisfarne and The Strawbs, Steeleye - The fairports weren't charting as much as those guys, Irish folk was Val Doonican and The Dubliners, Dylan had moved on to something or other else, whatever it was... We all went to folk clubs and disregarded all this . Weird really when you think... |
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19 May 12 - 07:56 AM (#3352799) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Tug the Cox Anyone mentioned 'Morris On' made quite a stir, then Rattlebones and Ploughjacks was hugely influential in the revival of rag coat/black face dance groups of various sorts....and the Straw Bear. |
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19 May 12 - 08:45 AM (#3352818) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Mick Pearce (MCP) Al I wouldn't say we disregarded it all. The first folk club I went to (Anchor House in Middlesbrough, mid-60s) has a fair representation of all of those. Certainly songs from the Spinners, The Clancys and the Dubliners were all were frequently sung. And Val Doonican's big hits too! I myself owned half a dozen or so Clancys records, two or three Dubliners records, one or two Spinners; and I owned the Val Doonican songbook too! My repertoire in those days was roughly half Irish songs (from the Clancys and Dubliners principally) and half American singer-songwriter songs (probably not exactly 50-50; I was also one of the Tees Delta blues singers, so blues was in there too and other things. But the Irish and the American songwriter were the major divisions). I saw the Clancys twice in concert (Albert Hall I think and Stockton YMCA afaik (a room smaller than many folk clubs at the time)), the Dubliners at the Albert Hall, Steeleye I saw too later. I don't sing much of that repertoire now (occasionally to myself and a couple of the American ones in public), but they all lead me on to the traditional British (and particularly English) material. I still don't sing only traditional songs, but the other stuff now is mostly from modern British songwriters or songs from the early days of jazz and American popular music. (Then again, Christy Moore was a regular visitor to Middlesbrough in those days, and he sang the popular Irish stuff then. I imagine he doesn't do many of those these days either). Mick |
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19 May 12 - 09:59 AM (#3352855) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker Depending on my emotional defence to hostile time consuming external real world problems [f@ck the lot of 'em - the over-officious obstructive bureaucratic legalistic bastards....] I often find I can't settle to enjoy listening to any music for weeks, months at a time... So it was when after spending ages tracking down rare CD releases: Bob & Carole Pegg - "He Came from the Mountain" (1971) Bob & Carole Pegg with Sydney Carter - "And Now It Is So Early: The Songs of Sydney Carter" (1973) I don't think I ever got round to listening before the mrs tidied them away in a box somewhere..?? Therefore, can't personly recommend for 'classic' status. But anyway, LPs noted here for your consideration... |
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19 May 12 - 11:10 AM (#3352871) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,John Foxen Big Al mentions a song by the Celebrated Ratcliffe Stout Band, Long Lost John, and says he doubts it ever got broadcast. I recorded off air from Folk On Two more years ago than I care to think about and now the cassette like John is long lost. Did it get on to vinyl or CD and does anyone know where I can get a copy? |
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19 May 12 - 11:18 AM (#3352872) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards Suibhne - OK, so that's 21. Anyone want to make it 22? Al - I personally am not very interested in Irish songs and not very interested at all in American songs. This may - ironically - cut me off from anything that will ever appeal to anyone who drinks in the public bar and confine me to a university-graduate pewter-tankard ghetto, and if so I'm sorry about that. But I like what I like, and what I like is mainly old English and Scottish songs. So that's what I've mainly been asking about & responding to. PFR: So it was when after spending ages tracking down rare CD releases: Bob & Carole Pegg - "He Came from the Mountain" (1971) Bob & Carole Pegg with Sydney Carter - "And Now It Is So Early: The Songs of Sydney Carter" (1973) I don't think I ever got round to listening before the mrs tidied them away in a box somewhere..?? Can't find out anything about HCFTM - its availability doesn't look too great either. But I've got And now it is so early, & very fine it is too - I've even covered one of the songs myself (the original is better though). |
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19 May 12 - 11:25 AM (#3352877) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Big Al Whittle I heard the Watersons got The Souling Song from peter Paul and Mary. Yes I've got the vinyl of the celebrated ratcliff Stout Band some where. I'll take a look and if I've got it send me your address and you canhave it. I won't die without it. John foxen. Might be a week or two. I've got gigs this weekend and obligations all week. al |
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19 May 12 - 11:48 AM (#3352887) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Reinhard "He Came from the Mountains" is a Trailer album and as such of course not available on CD. Its first track is Rise Up Jock which was included in 1975 on the Electric Muse anthology; that's why I already knew it in my student days even if I got the HCftM album only a year ago. I don't have (and didn't know of) "And Now It Is So Early", but I do have "Lovely in the Dances: Songs of Sydney Carter" (Plant Life, 1981) as part of my Steeleye Span and John Kirkpatrick collection. It's a fine album. MusicStack currently offers HCftM for £48.60. That might be a bit steep. |
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19 May 12 - 11:49 AM (#3352888) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,CS Not being terribly well listened in this area I'm not in a position to recommend anything much, but as for Anne Briggs, for no discernible reason I can figure, I took to her self penned stuff rather more than her trad. stuff. Engaging pop hearted tunes rendered simply with folkie sensibilities. Plus her timing's better when she drops the (unaccompanied) vocal ornamentation she adopted early on in her career, in favour of string (banjo?) & (frame?) drum driven rhythms. Being not much of a folkie, kind of folkie, I genuinely like her 'Sing a Song for You' of '73 and though it's arguably not the best song from the album, I sing this from it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B5uBURfm3s |
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19 May 12 - 12:02 PM (#3352891) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Big Al Whittle I dunno. Which ever age its done in - folk on television, and the radio really - is always pretty dire. I was married at the start of the 1970's so the only time I had to sit through The Spinners or The Corries on telly, or Val Doonican was when I went to visit my parents. Actually you've brought it all back to me. i can remember sitting in aged parents house (they were about fifty at the time!) watching the Corries in their leather waistcoat/harness things and wondering if they were wearing leather underpants. Do they really do really do bondage.....one couldn't help thinking. Anyway, I think the place for folk music is the folk clubs. |
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19 May 12 - 12:22 PM (#3352897) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,CS Looking up 'Sing a Song for You' I now realise that in fact it does in fact contain unaccompanied and ornamented trad. alongside self-penned which makes me sound somewhat dumb considering what I posted before. Ah well, I guess I was struck by the charm of the self-penned pieces. Her last studio album too it seems. |
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19 May 12 - 12:55 PM (#3352914) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,John Foxen I've just been Googling the Celebrated Ratliffe Stout Band and realised that the time to collect obscure Seventies vinyl was in the Seventies. Thanks Al Whittle for your offer of the album but if you have a look at the price it might fetch (£165 for a good copy) you might want to put it on eBay. Getting back to the main topic... Synanthesia brought out a fine album of that name. It was labelled acid folk but I would call it that only when I want to tease Dennis Homes who has moved a long way from that sound. And when it comes to folk rock Heavy Horses by Jethro Tull should get an honorable mention. |
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19 May 12 - 01:47 PM (#3352929) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Big Al Whittle Mind you , I still can't get used to headlines about Corries Star - being about Coronation Street. Thankyou for your honesty John! You have given me a reason to go looking in the attic. |
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19 May 12 - 02:12 PM (#3352939) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Jim Carroll Surprised at how few (virtually no) source singers suggested here. Walter Pardon came onto the scene in 1975 - two superb albums. Somewhat earlier was (IMO) and out of your time scale, but the finest album of a traditional singer ever made - Sam Larner's, 'Now is the Time For Fishing' - (traditional song in context) first issued in 1962 and re-issued in the 90s. Jim Carroll |
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19 May 12 - 05:34 PM (#3352993) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards Surprised at how few (virtually no) source singers suggested here. I think that would be another thread. Admittedly I didn't actually specify revivalists, but all the examples I gave to start with were Revival, and 60s/70s Revival rather than 50s/60s at that. |
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19 May 12 - 05:49 PM (#3353004) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray Surprised at how few (virtually no) source singers suggested here. I touched upon this in an earlier post, but albums of the old traditional singers (why do I not like the term source singer?) operate more as DOCUMENT than PRODUCT, and PRODUCT is pretty much what's under discussion here. That said, one of my personal treasures is the Topic John MacDonald LP The Singing Molecatcher of Morayshire. There is a rumour that he misunderstood the copyright law and after the LP was released never sang any of the songs on it again. True? Who knows... |
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19 May 12 - 06:20 PM (#3353011) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Big Al Whittle 'Surprised at how few (virtually no) source singers suggested here. No you're not. You old scallywag! |
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19 May 12 - 11:07 PM (#3353086) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker ok.. "AND NOW IT IS SO EARLY: SONGS OF SYDNEY CARTER" CD can be purchased direct from Carole Pegg's own website - £12. http://www.innerasianmusic.com/sales.htm "He came from the mountains" CD was released briefly by indie label "VINYL JAPAN" [JASKCD-171] and is now nearly impossible to find on sale anywhere at sensible prices ... googling indicates it may still be available from Japan ??? |
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20 May 12 - 01:01 AM (#3353109) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Gurney Hope you enjoy the 20 that you have selected, Phil. I would, and do, in some cases. I've digitised several of my LPs, but those ones turned out to be available in CD anyway. Source singers? They are interesting to the traddie, but usually they're not enthralling performers, if you want to just enjoy the music. |
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20 May 12 - 02:44 AM (#3353123) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Big Al Whittle I suppose one thing that has hampered the spread of the appreciation of source singers is the cost of their recordings. Pete Coe had a nice selection of trad singer cds with him, when I saw him. I bought the Joe Heaney one, but I should have liked to have bought the Harry Cox and Sam Larner ones. At fifteen quid a pop - their albums are around the most expensive. Twas ever thus. I remeber when Stefan Grossman was the only source of recording by Mississipi John Hurt ad others. the companion tape to his Blues guitar tape book (with classics like Shake that Thing was more than a weeks wages when I was a young teacher _ I couldn't afford it. My own recordings I can't even bloody give away - so scuse me if I don't go white with fury at the publics unfamiliarity with albums that don't sound as though they've been any great expense to produce, yet cost an arm and a leg. |
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20 May 12 - 04:23 AM (#3353140) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray Source singers? They are interesting to the traddie, but usually they're not enthralling performers, if you want to just enjoy the music. I must take issue with this statement; it's not untypical of attitudes I've encountered down the years. For sure, it's a matter of taste, but these so-called 'source singers' (let's call them Traditional Singers shall we?) are the pure drop & it is an honour to be able to hear them - because in hearing them you hear how a Folk Song lived and breathed in its natural habitat before being dragged kicking & screaming into the humpty-dumpty macrame-beat open-D guitar picking conventions of British Folk Music. Like I said earlier, I pretty much gave up on listening to revival folk once I discovered I could listen to the Traditional Singers instead - they made it real in a way no revival singer ever could. And the best Revival Singers always reveared the Tradition Singers anyway. First acknowledge the wisdom of the ancients... Some of the first truly Traditional albums I bought were those lovely old Tangent / School of Scottish Studies LPs such as The Muckle Sangs, Bothy Ballads and the utterly awesome Music from the Western Isles - that was back around 1977 / 79 and I still listen to them today - even on CD as we bought a bundle up in Auld Reekie back in February. To me these albums are what Folk is all about, and whilst, for sure, I might question the methods of VOTP (even the School of Scottish Studies albums), each song on there - each perfect performance - is a joy beyond measure; each performance more enthralling than anything you're going to be able to hear elsewhere, much less pull off yourself (!?). In short the Traditional Singers are the reason why we're here in the first place - something too oft forgotten in Folk these days. |
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20 May 12 - 06:40 AM (#3353191) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Big Al Whittle Well it wouldn't do for us to be all the same. i prefer the revivalist singers every time. Prefer the Dubliners to any number of irish trad singers, Christy Moore to John Reilly. Hamish Imlach over Blind lemon Jefferson. I'd better shut up - I can see that will really annoy you. Still I'm afraid that's how it is. And Joan Baez....well, I know its not authentic - but I love everything about her - the guitar style, the childe ballads, the voice..... and Bob Dylan should have done the decent thing and married her, and set up a great folk singing dynasty. |
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20 May 12 - 07:01 AM (#3353208) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Reinhard Well, we already have the Copper and Waterson/Carthy dynasties. |
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20 May 12 - 09:12 AM (#3353260) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker Me - I'd be seriously excited if Portishead attempted a CD of English trad folk songs.. In my dreams they'd do what I want to but much better than I ever could... |
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20 May 12 - 12:19 PM (#3353330) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray I'd better shut up - I can see that will really annoy you. It's each to their own in this world, Al - & I know I'm alone in listening to old Traditional Singers for the pure sonic joy of the thing (rather than by way of 'research' academic or otherwise). Oddly enough Joan Baez is someone I only heard just yesterday on account of a 'parallel routes' crisis. Eevery time we do one of our new songs from our Harry Smith set, people say it's a Joan Baez song. Weird really - to us it's a Buell Kazee song, but out of curiosity I listened to the Baez version yesterday morning. Nice enough, but I think I'll stick with Buell Kazee. I suppose it's all question of reality, rather than authenticity, which is something else altogether. You get authenticity in Model Railway Circles; you also get enthusiasts, but the real thing is the heart of soul of what this music is about. |
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21 May 12 - 03:19 AM (#3353613) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Chris B (Born Again Scouser) Trees' 'On The Shore' was for many years an unjustly neglected folk-rock gem. Commands silly money on Ebay these days. The Dransfields' 'Lord Of All I Behold' tends not to be as highly regarded as 'Rout Of The Blues' - unfairly, I think. The Albion Band's soundtrack to 'Lark Rise To Candleford' is one of the best combinations of music and spoken word I've heard, but then I saw the stage production. Matt Molloy's first solo LP (with Donal Lunny) is a masterclass not just in flute playing but also in accompaniment. I learnt loads from Happy Traum's 'Relax Your Mind', not least because of the tab booklet included. Bert Jansch's 'Rosemary Lane' was probably the Bertest of all his albums. Alan Stivell's 'Chemins De Terre', 'A L'Olympia', 'E Langonned' and 'Renaissance Of The Celtic Harp'. Packie Byrne and Bonnie Shaljean's 'The Half Door'. Christy Moore, 'The Iron Behind The Velvet'. Great tunes as well as songs. By the way, has no-one mentioned Planxty and The Bothy Band? All the Five Hand Reel albums, as well as 'No More Forever', 'Kist O' Gold' and 'Coppers And Brass'. 'Cruel Sister' by Pentangle. 'Solid Air' by John Martyn. |
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21 May 12 - 04:04 AM (#3353621) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe Chris B, I think you and I might have the same record collection! |
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21 May 12 - 04:15 AM (#3353627) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards I'm staying in Britain for the moment, but some of those sound excellent. Thanks in particular for the Trees tip - I've listened to a couple of the tracks that have been Youtubed, and they're fantastic. Now that's what I call folk-rock... 'Cruel Sister' by Pentangle. Side one is rather fab, but I can't listen to Jack Orion these days (I see Trees recorded Glasgerion though...) Mixed feelings about Pentangle. Basket of light is still one of my favourite albums of any genre (that production!) but in retrospect I do wish they'd stuck with trad material. Nothing wrong with the rhythm section, though, which isn't something you can always say of folk-rock. (If Terry Cox had joined the Albions...?) 'Solid Air' by John Martyn. yeahbutnobut... My favourite John Martyn-related story was about the floor-singer who turned up at a none-more-trad folk club in Sussex and, having heard some of the regulars, apologised for not having any trad material and offered a John Martyn song instead. And did Spencer the Rover. Bert Jansch's 'Rosemary Lane' was probably the Bertest of all his albums. Duly noted. Can't help noticing that nobody's nominated anything by the Fairports, in any incarnation. Also, what about that Tabor person? What would people recommend for someone who loves: Young Waters Waly Waly her take on the Scarecrow* but hates (seriously): The Band Played Waltzing Matilda King of Rome her take on Love will tear us apart** ? *Never heard a bad version of the Scarecrow, now I think of it **Some songs, on the other hand, should be left well alone. |
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21 May 12 - 04:30 AM (#3353633) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray Alan Stivell's 'Chemins De Terre', 'A L'Olympia', 'E Langonned' and 'Renaissance Of The Celtic Harp'. I used to be a huge Alan Stivell fan. I'm not sure - maybe I still am - deep down maybe, though the last thing I bought by him was a CD called 'Again' back in 1993 on which he revisits his greatest hits in new versions with guests-stars Shane McGowan, Kaste Bush & Davey Spillane. Not exactly a positive experience for me I must say. In theory at least, I still like the acoustic albums he did: the almost traditional E Langonned, the Celtic twilit Trema'n Inis, and the jazzy Journee a la Maison, though one of my favourites was a real killer dark folk funk album he did in the early eighties called Terre des vivants. I wonder if I could still listen to that? Saw him a few times, solo & with the band but his live shows tended to feature the greatest hits. Once (at Glasgow Green festival in 1984??) I watched him soundchecking the whole of his Legend album (a favourite of mine at the time) but they did none of it on the night. I know we're straying from Pip's remit here, but what about Malicorne, eh? They sure could teach us Brits a thing or two about Folk Rock. |
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21 May 12 - 07:22 AM (#3353704) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker I used to have an encyclopedic memory for music bands and artists.. almost to rival Suibhne's.. but the last 5 years or so I can barely even recall my own name - bugger those useless decrepit ageing brain cells... so I've just surprised myself by suddenly remembering that my favourite folk rock band when I was about 15 in the mid 70s was "Jack the Lad" [4 LPs released between 74 -> 76..] I swear they were so unruly and exciting they helped invent punk rock... |
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21 May 12 - 07:32 AM (#3353707) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker ..which has just sparked off another withering brain synapse or 2.. "McGuinness Flint" first LP [1970 / 71] ok more folkish than folk again, but one of my most favourite LPs ever of any genre.. and I'd completely forgot it ever existed ??? bollocks.. now which box in which cupboard in which room is it in ???? |
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21 May 12 - 08:10 AM (#3353731) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker just reminiscing and reading the wiki for Jack the Lad.. There's mention of a Northern electric folk band "Hedgehog Pie" rings some bells, but I cant remember if I ever heard them ??? So were Hedgehog Pie any good ??? I'm off to youtube 'em.. |
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21 May 12 - 08:18 AM (#3353734) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Big Al Whittle Hedgehog Pie -Wasn't that martin jenkins band after Dando Shaft? Jack the lad were an offshoot of Lindisfarne, I think. |
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21 May 12 - 09:01 AM (#3353745) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Chris B (Born Again Scouser) RE. Fairport, as per the thread title I've confined myself to the 70s - in my view, Fairport were already past their best by the end of 1969. Others may disagree. There were a couple of nice compilations during the 70s, notably the US A&M collection 'Fairport Chronicles'. The Fotheringay album just squeaks in from 1970, of course, as does 'Hark The Village Wait' by Steeleye Span. All of the first 4 Steeleye albums warrant inclusion, as do most of Ralph McTell's LPs from the early 70s. Most of the Chieftains albums from the period hold up pretty well, none more so than 3 and 4. 'The Chanter's Tune' by Na Fili is a favourite of mine as well. I still have a copy of the Woods Band album from 1971. Rare as hen's teeth - I bought it the day after seeing them playing at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. I found myself sitting next to and chatting with a guy from Cork. Turned out to be Rory Gallagher. He bought me a beer in the interval. That's another story. |
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21 May 12 - 04:41 PM (#3353964) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Ross Campbell Was just reminded of Dave Brady (Obit; Guardian) and Swan Arcade http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Arcade . Reinhard Zierke's site has discography and track listings, http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/folk/records/swanarcade.html YouTube has a few to sample:- Swan Arcade - Down In The Valley To Pray Swan Arcade - Babylon Is Fallen Favourite Swan Arcade album? Any with "Peat Bog Soldiers" on; unfortunately no YouTube for that, short clips available on commercial sites. Occasional shanty groups excepted (eg Stormalong John, Sail Pattern), nobody seems to do this sort of rowdy, raucous, harmony singing nowadays. Glorious to hear, and great to take part in. (Please, [Please!] correct me if you think I'm wrong. Ross |
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22 May 12 - 02:36 PM (#3354405) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards Just bumping this thread to repeat the June Tabor question: What would people recommend for someone who loves: Young Waters Waly Waly her take on the Scarecrow but hates (seriously): The Band Played Waltzing Matilda King of Rome her take on Love will tear us apart ? (Also I've gone off Maddy Prior a bit, so I'm not sure the Silly Sisters would be a good place to go.) |
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22 May 12 - 04:32 PM (#3354460) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Reinhard Try her album of border ballads, An Echo of Hooves. |
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22 May 12 - 04:39 PM (#3354462) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray I'll second Echo of Tiny Hooves - absolutely amazing album. |
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22 May 12 - 05:09 PM (#3354474) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards Sounds remarkable. Quoth Wikipedia: "There were many albums consisting entirely of Child ballads in the 60s and 70s. By the 90s, such albums became rare." Another reason why I'm asking about the 70s! |
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22 May 12 - 05:25 PM (#3354488) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Leadfingers 100 |
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23 May 12 - 04:10 PM (#3354865) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: The Sandman The Dunmow Flitch |
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23 Oct 12 - 06:21 AM (#3424647) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,matt milton OK, here's my suggestion: "The Sweet Rose In June" by Bob Copper http://www.emusic.com/listen/#/album/bob-copper/sweet-rose-in-june/12458466/: but I gotta say I'm not really a fan of the 70s as far as folk goes. Most of my folk faves are 50s and 60s. I hate folk-rock though, so it's not surprising. But even the non-rock-influenced stuff in the 70s sounds a bit too 'brown tank-top' for me. Uncomfortably close to the stereotypes/jokes people make about folkies. Oh, I'll also suggest this one too: "Adam and the Beasts" by Alasdair Clayre, which is singer-songwriter psych folk at its most university don-ish and professorial. |
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23 Oct 12 - 07:28 AM (#3424677) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Guest Hi Folks John Goodluck's albums have all been re-released on CD and are available from his web site. He's still playing out and recording too. |
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23 Oct 12 - 08:11 AM (#3424687) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,mehren You can find albumns by John here: John Goodluck Albums |
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23 Oct 12 - 09:32 AM (#3424712) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST "I suppose one thing that has hampered the spread of the appreciation of source singers is the cost of their recordings. Pete Coe had a nice selection of trad singer cds with him, when I saw him. I bought the Joe Heaney one, but I should have liked to have bought the Harry Cox and Sam Larner ones. At fifteen quid a pop - their albums are around the most expensive. " An awful lot of the Topic back catalogue is now digitized. So you can hear Harry Cox, Sam Larner, Walter Pardon, Voice of the People albums et al for free via Spotify. Or, via selective MP3 purchasing, via iTunes or eMusic. I'd forgotten Rosemary Lane was a 70s album. That's my second-favourite favourite Jansch album; his debut being my favourite. |
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23 Oct 12 - 10:22 AM (#3424746) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,bardfollower Worth checking out the John Goodluck site. You can buy a cd of his legendary 'Suffolk Miracle' album there for £8.00 incl p&p from the man himself. see John Goodluck web site |
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23 Oct 12 - 10:38 AM (#3424758) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,CS Whereabouts are you parked on the Deben John? My auld fella is parked up (part time) in Woodbridge. |
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23 Oct 12 - 05:36 PM (#3425041) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,cropduster How about 'A glint at the kindling' by Robin Williamson and his merry band. |
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24 Oct 12 - 05:34 AM (#3425263) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: scouse No one seems to have mentioned the group "Theraphy." Got two of their LP's, the cobination of Fiona Wilson and Dave Shannon was superb. A class act. As Aye, Phil. |
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07 Nov 13 - 08:07 AM (#3573567) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: Phil Edwards Eighteen months on, here's that list again: Great folk LPs (that I've missed) from the 1970s and thereabouts: a preliminary list Peter Bellamy (and the Young Tradition): several Shirley Collins (with or without Dolly Collins): several Albion Country Band: the Battle of the Field Frankie Armstrong: Lovely on the Water Dave and Toni Arthur: Morning stands on tiptoe Dave Burland: Dalesman's Litany Martin Carthy: Prince Heathen (and others) Pete & Chris Coe: Out of Season,out of Rhyme The Dransfields: The Rout Of The Blues Jim Eldon: I Wish There was No Prisons Derek and Dorothy Elliot: first album Ray Fisher: The Bonny Birdy Bob Fox and Stu Luckly: Nowt So Good'll Pass Dick Gaughan: A Handful of Earth (and others) John Goodluck: The Suffolk Miracle (and others) Roy Harris: The Bitter and the Sweet Louis Killen: Ballads and Broadsides John Kirkpatrick & Sue Harris: Among the many attractions at the show will be a Really High Class Band (and others) Muckram Wakes: A Map of Derbyshire Lea Nicholson: Horsemusic Roger Nicholson, Jake Walton and Andrew Cronshaw: Times and Traditions for Dulcimer Maddy Prior and Tim Hart: Summer Solstice Watersons: Frost and Fire (and others) And in those eighteen months I've caught up with... Albion Country Band: the Battle of the Field Which is an absolute corker, it has to be said. Could be subtitled "In which Ashley and friends invent folk-rock without really thinking about it, and do it properly". Still, only one album out of 20+. I'll have to step up my acquisition rate if I'm going to get through the list. (I was reminded of this thread by the sight of a copy of New Victory Band's One More Dance And Then (which nobody mentioned) in the Manchester Oxfam shop. Muckram Wakes plus Pete and Chris Coe! Very tempting, even for someone who prefers songs to tunes, but the condition of the vinyl was just too dodgy.) |
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07 Nov 13 - 11:45 AM (#3573628) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe Phil, I have 15 of the albums on that list in one form or another. We should catch up soon and you can borrow some (if you promise to be nice to my vinyl)... |
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07 Nov 13 - 12:10 PM (#3573637) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST,Musket getting nostalgic Enjoyed skimming this thread. Brought back a few memories. Funnily enough, I was listening to Dick Gaughan's Handful of Earth in the car this morning driving over the M62. One rather iconic (for me) album of the 70s and I think spurred me on to treat traditional and contemporary, UK &Ireland and American etc etc as one entity to fill your own repertoire it would be Therapy's One Night Stand. It represents for me everything you would hear in a drafty upstairs room of a pub with candles on the tables and guitar cases lining the walls, and this teenager watched and listened on Sunday night, practiced like hell on a Monday night and tried something I learned in front of others come the Tuesday night at another club. |
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08 Nov 13 - 12:09 PM (#3573934) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: GUEST Don't see Bob Davenport mentioned anywhere here- a very important influence on all sorts of people- mind you, he wouldn't like any LP of his described as 'Folk' |
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08 Nov 13 - 10:29 PM (#3574061) Subject: RE: Great 70s folk LPs (that I've missed) From: McGrath of Harlow Basically, life is far too short to be able to listen to all the music that's so good you can't possibly not listen to it. That's either depressing or something to rejoice at. I'd opt for rejoice. |