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John Martyn - The Tumbler
A very young Martyn on just his second album. The guitar work on this album is something else.
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Airs and Graces
Horslips - Dancehall Sweethearts
I finally managed to go to Lenny's Records in Adelaide today. I only bought records from the British Folk section. Including this...definitely not British...album.
I've been meaning to get some Horslips on my shelves for a while. This is their third album, from 1974. A mixture of Irish folk and proggy seventies rock. Cool.
The cover tells us, 'Believe it or not these tracks have traditional airs concealed about their persons.' Apparently, the album is based on the travels of an 18th Century blind harper. The record company made them come up with a more contemporary title and cover to hide this fact.
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Here comes Jack with his ten months' pay.
Ewan MacColl accompanied by Peggy Seeger - The Manchester Angel
A couple of weeks before we moved into our house, we were at a folk festival about a hundred kilometers away. There were some flyers for a forthcoming folk and rock record sale scattered around and one of our party said, “Isn’t that the road you’re moving to?” It was. It was the house next door and the record sale was on the day after we moved in. It was that sort of area. I popped next door to say hello and fill my boots with as much folk as I could afford.
This was pre-discogs days, so someone selling their collection out of their shed is less likely to happen nowadays, sadly.
This was one of the albums I picked up. It has a version of one of my favourite folk songs, Round Cape Horn.
Now, I’m pretty sure that Peggy Seeger made an appearance at a Stop The War gig I attended in 1991 at the Hackney Empire. I barely new who she was, but remember it was a big deal.
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Middle-aged
Steeleye Span - Below The Salt
English folk, with a focus on the mediaeval, and everything on overdrive a bit. Gadzooks – it’s fucking great!
And...Gaudete.
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Ooh, hold on.
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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I carried my bodkin and shears
Steeleye Span - Parcel Of Rogues
An album which addresses the tension between the old and the new during industrialisation and does that by creating tension between old and new musical forms.
Someone really needed to reign in the guitarists during the recording of this. Oh, and they’ve brought the drummer back.
I’m a sucker for Hares On The Mountain, and this album contains my least favourite version yet.
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Taut Stabs
Steeleye Span - Ten Man Mop Or Mr Reservoir Butler Rides Again
I remember, years ago, I was driving home from work in a Mitsubishi Mirage with an unnecessarily loud stereo, playing a ripped CD of Steeleye Span tunes with no track listing. It struck me that musically, the song Gower Wassail, which kicks off this album, could be NoMeansNo, with its taut stabs. Think, It's Catching Up.
I’ve pondered this now and then over the intervening years, but have never known which particular Steeleye Span tune it was. Now I know.
This has made me want to listen to NoMeansNo.
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Sacked
Steeleye Span - Please To See The King
When they recorded the first album, Steeleye Span all lived in the same house, like a proper band. This, rather predictably, ended in tears and bitter acrimony and a corporate re-structuring.
The most noticeable changes on this, the second album, are the absence of a drummer and the presence of the then emerging English folk ledge Martin Carthy, whose presence is immediately apparent.
I wouldn’t mind betting that Planxty were listening to this, pointing at the record player and exclaiming “That!”
I feel like I’m going to have to buy the next album now.
The sleeve of this album is a hessian effect. This sent me down a rabbit hole trying to remember which 90’s Scottish punk band released an album with a real hessian sleeve. Found it.
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Not to be confused with Steely Dan
Steeleye Span - Hark! The Village Wait
A 1970s take on English folk, with a version of The Blacksmith and Blackleg Miner.
Maddy Prior has a wonderful voice.
Their wikipedia page actually says, 'Not to be confused with Steely Dan.'
Also, shout out to the shittiest, most low-effort record sleeve ever. Jesus.
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Ohh I dont think I've heard that one. Wonder if they'll have a Steely Dan/Fleetwood Mac revival.
Lol re the wiki disclaimer.
Lol re the wiki disclaimer.
Sin sceal deas is
The Wolfe Tones - A Belt Of The Celts
I was once told a marvellous Wolfe Tones story. I don’t know if it’s true, but I hope it is.
It’s the peak of the hunger strikes and emotions are running high. The Wolfe Tones are playing a packed and politically charged gig in Waterford. Derek Warfield addresses the crowd between songs:
Derek: “Are you having a good time tonight?”
Crowd: “Yeah”
Derek: “Have we got any Brits in tonight?”
Solitary voice in the crowd: “Yes”
Derek: “Oh…um, well, we hope you have a lovely time in Waterford.”
I bought this LP in the mid-80s. It taught me that a tune doesn’t have to be punk to be angry.
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Don't know what's going wrong inside
John Martyn - Solid Air
Danny Thompson, who played bass on this album—as well as lots of others—died last week.
I saw Martyn live in 1985, at one of those free festivals put on by the GLC, when they were using up all the money before being disbanded by Thatcher. I think he was a bit lost on me at the time. I was waiting for Gil Scott-Heron to come on. I wish I'd appreciated it more, but there you go. Looking at the setlist, it would've been great.
I probably don’t need to say what a fine album this is.
There's a rather good docco about Martyn made by the BBC, Johnny Too Bad, which is well worth a watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0DVynJD4jE&t=4s(it's on YouTube) It might be time to give it another go.
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A black wall of cloud in the east and a taper of rainbows
Richard Dawson - The Ruby Cord
The first track on this album, The Hermit, clocks in at a mere 41 minutes and covers the first two sides. It’s a stunning piece of work, hitting prog, folk, jazz, experimental and psych bases as it goes along. The phrasing of the “….rainbows” refrain in the second part is so clever. If I was a jazz player, I’d cover the fuck out of this. Dawson made a video for this – well he fucking would, wouldn’t he.
Dawson has a fascinating lyrical and melodic style and on this album he applies these to a dismal view of mankind’s future, whilst remaining oblique enough to not be a Warhammer-y embarrassment.
The BBC Radio 3 Late Junction At home with Richard Dawson is worth checking out.
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This is a strange affair
Richard & Linda Thompson - First Light
This album was the Thompsons’ return from a three year sabbatical spent in Sufi communes, about which Linda was later quite scathing. The songs are along broadly spiritual themes, but you wouldn’t know it, because they’re so well-hidden. However, Richard’s songwriting style is always right there, front and centre.
It’s a good album, albeit a slow-burning one.
Linda's voice is great.
It has an interesting cast of players, including 70’s show-tune queen, Julie Covington, Andy Fairweather-Low from the Amen Corner and Maddy Prior from Steeleye Span, as well as the top session musicians of the day.
Today I learned: Richard Thompson was once in a band with Hugh Cornwell of the Stranglers.
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Don’t know what’s going wrong inside
Sean Khan presents The Modern Jazz and Folk Ensemble - Volume 1
I received this LP for my birthday last year from a mate who knows I like jazz and knows I like folk.
There's nothing wrong with this album. It just leaves me a little cold and I find it hard to articulate why. I mean, what's not to like? Lovely songs given a jazz glow-up.
Perhaps it all sounds a bit JazzFM? I like it most when Khan stretches out the most (like in the soprano sax solo of Who Knows Where The Time Goes.) Perhaps it's aimed at people who don't dig so deeply into the folk ditch? I dunno.
The fact it's called Volume 1 leads you to think there's going to be a Volume 2. What'll be on there, I wonder? Moondance? Come On Eileen? I've Got A Brand New Combine Harvester?
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Uuuuunnnnnnngggggggggg
One Leg One Eye - .... And Take The Black Worm With Me
This is Ian Lynch from Lankum's 2022 side-project, where he combines lo-fi drone (and being a piper, he gets drone better than most, I think) with more trad-folk elements. You'll either love the sound of that or you won't.
Full disclosure, I own the vinyl version of this, but I'm playing it on headphones from the Bandcamp app. Partly, this is because the telly's on, the washing machine's on and I'm cooking the tea. Partly, this is because it works well on headphones. Mainly, this is because the LP is pressed with recycled vinyl chips, all very eco-friendly of course, but absolute cat shit as far as pressing quality goes. If you've ever bought Jamaican pressings, it's a bit like that.
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