― NickB (NickB), Thursday, 15 December 2005 10:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― NickB (NickB), Thursday, 15 December 2005 10:50 (eighteen years ago) link
― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 15 December 2005 10:59 (eighteen years ago) link
... and this is significant in what way exactly?
-- We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (dadaismu...), December 15th, 2005 9:56 AM. (Dada) (later)
I just thought it was ILM law to mention Reynolds whenever possible.
I wish there were more songs like Tam Lyn by Fairport, i.e funky Black Sabbath. Swedish doom band Witchcraft get there sometimes.
most of the the wyrd-folk stuff is only surface level weird. The second Steeleye recording of The Blacksmith is so much more bizarre than any of them, and that isn't even what it's trtying to do - what an amazing arrangement it has. Modern wyrd-folk types too much like Colin Hunt types... "You do have to be mad to work here but it doesn't help" etc.
― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Thursday, 15 December 2005 11:04 (eighteen years ago) link
You're right
― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 15 December 2005 11:06 (eighteen years ago) link
The message I'm getting from this thread is that newer musicans aren't up to the standard of older musicians in folk music? Obviously ppl like mattacks, dransfield, guys from gryphon, thompson etc are hard to follow (evidence on eg Fairport's ROCKING live album "House Full") but I had kind of thought folk would be a genre where powerful/expressive musicianship/group playing would still be at some sort of premium. Dissapointing if not so.
Anyway, "No Roses" by Shirley Collins/Albion band is fucking great, and should get more props, basically.
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 15 December 2005 11:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 15 December 2005 11:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 15 December 2005 11:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 15 December 2005 11:32 (eighteen years ago) link
AFAIK the terrible term wyrd-folk was coined by Stone Breath's Tim Renner.
― Rombald, Thursday, 15 December 2005 11:33 (eighteen years ago) link
But, before I begin to sound like a prog rocker, you don't have to be a brilliant musician to play folk music - in fact, one of the reasons I got sick of that whole scene was its muso-ishness (especially, fiddle players who only want to play as fast and as twiddly as possible!). To play like Fairport you have to be pretty good tho of course!
― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 15 December 2005 11:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 15 December 2005 11:37 (eighteen years ago) link
Morris On I like, other Albions stuff I'm not mad on, really. Perhaps the drums are why? I haven't listened to any for a while.
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 15 December 2005 11:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 15 December 2005 11:42 (eighteen years ago) link
That's a good record that is. 'Lay Me Low' or whatever it's called just kills me. Totally tramples over any sort of aesthetic barriers I might have erected against that sort of soppy twaddle and stomps all over my jaded old heart. Sniffle.
― NickB (NickB), Thursday, 15 December 2005 11:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 15 December 2005 11:48 (eighteen years ago) link
Didn't really know there was any "revival" of British folk right now in terms of new bands playing it. I knew there was a revival of interest in the last few years, otherwise I wouldn't really know who Fairport Convention was, honestly.
I've often thought that 60s British folk revivalists treated folk music with much more respect and subtlty than their American counterparts did (who went for "simplicity" and "rawness"). This might also explain why I find Brit bands better at playing blues than their white American counterparts.
― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Thursday, 15 December 2005 15:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― ortho_bob (ortho_bob), Thursday, 15 December 2005 16:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― myopic_void (myopic_void), Thursday, 15 December 2005 17:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 15 December 2005 17:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― myopic_void (myopic_void), Thursday, 15 December 2005 17:46 (eighteen years ago) link
― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Thursday, 15 December 2005 17:56 (eighteen years ago) link
search: Shirley and Dolly Collins "Plains of Waterloo."
and sweet heavens, some forty posts in let me be the first to say the hallowed name of Davy Graham.
― imbidimts, Thursday, 15 December 2005 18:03 (eighteen years ago) link
Have you seen them? Because they fucking do. Or did when they opened for Devendra in Edinburgh. But crap.
― sean gramophone (Sean M), Thursday, 15 December 2005 18:19 (eighteen years ago) link
Espers draws far more influence from Pentangle and Bread, Love and Dreams.
Sorry. But you drew a very poor comparison.
― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Thursday, 15 December 2005 18:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Thursday, 15 December 2005 18:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tripmaker (SDWitzm), Thursday, 15 December 2005 18:37 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tripmaker (SDWitzm), Thursday, 15 December 2005 18:38 (eighteen years ago) link
Dave Mattacks was playing in bar bands here in Boston for a while a few years ago (and may still be). He was introduced to me by a friend who said "hey, you like Richard Thompson, don't you? This is Dave; he played drums with him."
As a huge fan of the complete family tree of Brit-folk(-rock), I don't think the entirely unassuming Mr. Mattacks was quite prepared for the amount of drool that ensued. It somehow seemed even bigger to me than meeting, say, Richard Thompson himself, because Mattacks defined that particular sound as much as anybody. Frankly, I think he was frightened by me.
When I asked him why he moved to Boston, he said, "just to try get gigs." As much as I know how small our idols' roles are in the world of commercial music, it was crushing to hear that out of him.
― southern lights, Thursday, 15 December 2005 19:46 (eighteen years ago) link
i certainly hear influences of the old stuff in the new, but nothing too much alike. espers don't sound much like fairport to me, aside from the pretty vocals. i saw them once live and they were more weird sounding, like almost "trance" and really dark. i don't know, i have looked into them and thier inflkuences, but most of the stuff they talk about or people who like them tal about seems so unheard of or really hard to find. i don't think devendra's stuff sounds like any of it. i'd like to hear that lucky luke band.
― peter x (bucksbreeze), Thursday, 15 December 2005 19:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Thursday, 15 December 2005 22:34 (eighteen years ago) link
We seem to be agreeing on just about everything here
― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 16 December 2005 10:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― sean gramophone (Sean M), Friday, 16 December 2005 10:58 (eighteen years ago) link
just not getting any of the uk folk music.
and however said that the espers sounds like bread over fairport is spot on.
18th day of may is too much of a fairport copyist band. pretty dull fair.
― doomie x, Friday, 16 December 2005 11:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― doomie x, Friday, 16 December 2005 11:05 (eighteen years ago) link
i have a lot of time for lucky luke..
― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Friday, 16 December 2005 11:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 16 December 2005 11:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Friday, 16 December 2005 11:07 (eighteen years ago) link
lucky luke is dull as fuck!! its like listening to grateful dead b-sides.
dadaimus ... did you get the vashti record. its pretty. but there is absolutely nothing of substance. i couldn't remember one song after it finished playing!
― doomie x, Friday, 16 December 2005 11:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Friday, 16 December 2005 11:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 16 December 2005 11:09 (eighteen years ago) link
i think with Vashti -- it has that hip 'quotient' ... nobody dareth say that the album was dull as fuck because you know, its like VASHTI, and its like so awesome she recorded something.
― doomie x, Friday, 16 December 2005 11:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 16 December 2005 11:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― doomie x, Friday, 16 December 2005 11:13 (eighteen years ago) link
― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Friday, 16 December 2005 11:14 (eighteen years ago) link
I prefer the second Steeleye Span LP to the first, and I prefer both to Liege and Lief.
Hello Doomie!
― Tim (Tim), Friday, 16 December 2005 11:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Friday, 16 December 2005 11:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― NickB (NickB), Friday, 16 December 2005 11:16 (eighteen years ago) link
its funny re: patti smith. i remember in 87 i heard about her and i was like i have to hear some of this music and i went out and bought ... the book of life?? something like that? and it was so dull. i didnt buy another patti smith album for five years.
(Someone criticised VB on here many moons ago and received a not-very-impressed email from La Bunyan herself, I understand. How exciting!)
Folk divas. I can't think of anything more boring! Hey Tim!
― doomie x, Friday, 16 December 2005 11:16 (eighteen years ago) link
;_; RIP Norma
― Someone left a space telescope out in the rain (Tom D.), Monday, 31 January 2022 09:56 (two years ago) link
Tragic news. I'd gone to the record shop to buy a copy of For Pence and Spicy Ale, and was informed of her death by the shop owner.
― vexingvexillologist, Monday, 31 January 2022 21:29 (two years ago) link
That version of Hal-An-Tow on Frost and Fire, I don't even know what half of it means tbh, but that to me is one of the most joyful and life-affirming songs I can think of, that song basically banishes death and that is how I will always think of her. RIP Norma
― o shit the sheriff (NickB), Monday, 31 January 2022 21:42 (two years ago) link
oh :(
coming at it from the opposite direction to Nick, I feel like every word of Red Wine & Promises off of Bright Phoebus is seared into my brain and I feel as though I understand what she meant exactly, down to the last nuance, and it is one of the saddest and most beautiful songs I've ever heard. one of those rare songs i've listened to repeatedly at moments of crisis in my life, just poured my soul into it and internalised it and made it all about me and my parents. a fucking wonder of a song.
but yes, Hal-An-Tow is joyful, A Souling Song is terrifying.
my Dad got me hooked, he used to play this track in the car when I was quite young and still utterly obsessed with the Libertines (and through them the Smiths, the Clash, the Jam and all of that). this, along with Poor Old Horse by the Albion Band and Penguin Eggs, showed me a completely different vision of what constituted "distinctly British music" and i'll always be grateful for that
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9qlI6hQYy0
RIP
― Windsor Davies, Tuesday, 1 February 2022 00:05 (two years ago) link
on his invaluable doomandgloomfromthetomb tumblr, ilxor tylerw sez:...check out this fantastic 1960s documentary on the Watersons, capturing the group very early on in their folk club days. The inky black-and-white style of the film could easily fit in with those classic British kitchen sink realist films of the era — you almost expect Tom Courtenay to be lurking in the background (Instead, there’s Anne Briggs, which is even better). It’s a beautiful time capsule.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vrszb4w318
― dow, Thursday, 17 February 2022 23:33 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOFsJLQZpcM
― xzanfar, Thursday, 17 February 2022 23:48 (two years ago) link
Is this book good? Hadn't heard of it.
Enjoying this book called Dazzling Stranger by Colin Harper. Connecting a lot of dots for me. Recommended if you’re into this sort of thing—British folk, Bert Jansch, blues, what have you. pic.twitter.com/8Ehg2hZMK6— Shane Parish (@shaneparishgtr) July 1, 2022
― dow, Friday, 1 July 2022 20:42 (one year ago) link
Was out a long time ago? I read it but I can't remember much about beyond Bert saying he was never interested in the Beatles.
― Eavis Has Left the Building (Tom D.), Friday, 1 July 2022 20:51 (one year ago) link
yeah thought it pretty great. Also looks at the Edinburgh and i think London folk scenes as they tie in with the narrative. There is a companion cd in 2 versions one either side of the Atlantic. They change a couple of tracks presumably tie din with rights etc.Unexpected appearance of Bruce Loose of Flipper whose dad was a promoter on the folk scene in the late 70s and also put Bert up a few times when he was drinking way too much. & Loose apparently started mimicking his behaviour.
I thought it was a good book as are the other couple of books by Harper I've read. Irish Folk, Trad & Blues: A Secret History and Bathed In Lightning: John McLaughlin, the 60s and the emerald beyond
― Stevolende, Saturday, 2 July 2022 09:29 (one year ago) link
.. Archie Fisher jumping out of a window to avoid Licorice McKechnie's dad is in there I think? Also Licorice and Bert almost getting married?
― Eavis Has Left the Building (Tom D.), Saturday, 2 July 2022 09:33 (one year ago) link
Hell yes. https://t.co/q2F50kLxBZ pic.twitter.com/Ulc1FuKKRW— Tyler Wilcox (@tywilc) July 14, 2022
― dow, Saturday, 16 July 2022 22:10 (one year ago) link
I love when a UK folk band expands their horizons to adopt the propulsive electric bass grooves and backbeat that characterized US folk-rock of the era. This LP is a great example, but Shirley Collins’ otherworldly voice and the song choices keep the vibeS trending traditional pic.twitter.com/q8v8E5zAiD— the modern folk (@themodernfolk) August 1, 2022
― dow, Monday, 1 August 2022 22:29 (one year ago) link
Keep meaning to buy Show of Hands' Singled Out, but I'm little puzzled by what it's meant to be exactly. A compilation of assorted post-2001 songs(?), with two rare recordings from the early 90s Columbus EP and "Crazy Boy" from 1997's Dark Fields. But why? What's it for?
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Monday, 1 August 2022 23:30 (one year ago) link
since the season is officially here and there has been a lot of “brit folk = chilly weather” discourse lately, here’s that uk folk mix i did for @aquadrunkard a while back https://t.co/NPzE7kYLlW— jocelyn romo (@theeroamer) September 25, 2022
― dow, Sunday, 25 September 2022 16:32 (one year ago) link
Lankum album (despite the album art) is really as good as they say
heavy, droney, druidic tradhttps://lankum.bandcamp.com/album/false-lankum
― sean gramophone, Tuesday, 13 June 2023 13:29 (eleven months ago) link
Lankum are not British! And there's already a thread for them!
― lord of the rongs (anagram), Tuesday, 13 June 2023 13:42 (eleven months ago) link
lol true on both counts, sorry!
― sean gramophone, Tuesday, 13 June 2023 13:49 (eleven months ago) link
Oops.
― Renaissance of the Celtic Trumpet (Tom D.), Tuesday, 13 June 2023 14:07 (eleven months ago) link
have been spinning shearwater multiple times this last week so seeing this was a nice surprise today: https://thequietus.com/articles/33584-martin-carthy-bakers-dozen-favourite-albums-jon-wilks
― no lime tangier, Monday, 13 November 2023 04:36 (six months ago) link
Lovely Martin Carthy. My grandfather played and sang with him in Bath and Sidmouth. I'm reliably informed their singing voices were very similar too.
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Monday, 13 November 2023 06:24 (six months ago) link
I saw Martin Simpson at a local church last weekend. He was great as ever, and just as pissed off. He played mostly stuff off his new album; Deportee, a Woody Guthrie cover, was probably the highlight. It's a predominantly conservative area, so some of his barbed comments about Rwanda and Gaza were met with a mixture of soft applause and awkward silence.
― I would prefer not to. (Chinaski), Thursday, 18 April 2024 20:14 (one month ago) link
American here and I don't know Martin Simpson at all except that I have ardently loved his cover of "Boots of Spanish Leather" for many years, just the most beautiful guitar figures. I don't even remember how I first came across it but I throw it on not infrequently. Nice to see his name pop up :)
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Monday, 6 May 2024 13:28 (four weeks ago) link
He's an extraordinary guitar player. I've never really fallen for a record of his, which is strange given how many albums he has. He makes sense in a live setting: along with his mesmerising playing, he's a brilliant storyteller and his rage is palpable.
He lived in the States for about 10 years, I think. He's back in the UK now - living in Sheffield; Richard Hawley is a neighbour. If he tours anywhere nearby, go see!
― I would prefer not to. (Chinaski), Monday, 6 May 2024 17:59 (four weeks ago) link
will do!
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Monday, 6 May 2024 18:16 (four weeks ago) link