Vin Garbutt - Little Innocents

As someone who grew up listening to punk, I truly believed that it was the only music which eschewed soppy love songs in favour of social issues. Then I discovered folk.

If I described this 1983 album to you, thematically, you’ll see what I mean. It has a cover which is the painting called The Slaughter of the Innocents which shows children being massacred by troops, and has songs about American cultural imperialism, spina bifida and the rights of the disabled, domestic violence, homelessness/alcoholism, unemployment, pollution, and civil rights.

Suck my folky dick, Conflict.

Anyway, the album ends with a big, all encompassing, song about all the wrongs of the world. Think From The Cradle To The Grave which turns everything into a pro-life argument. Fuck. Got that wrong. Haven't been that wrong about a song since I thought Abortion by Black Uhuru was pro-choice!

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Vin Garbutt - Tossin' A Wobbler

Back in Birmingham, I used to live a short walk from one of the best folk clubs in Britain. It wasn’t until I had a bit of an English folk awakening in the early 00’s that I realised what I’d been missing and started going. Although, unfortunately, I never went to see Vin Garbutt on any of the many occasions he played there.

Then, a decade later, across the other side of the planet, in a proper old junk shop in the Riverland town of Renmark, I find a copy of this LP for a dollar.

I think Garbutt was quite popular in Australia – it seems he used to tour here quite regularly, and this album has a South Australian distributor’s sticker on the back. And I recently saw a copy of this album in the record shop near my house.

The album is a mix of songs, both pre and post- industrial revolution, and reels. It’s very good. Wish I’d gone to see him live.

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