Entertainment For Lively Minds
Greatest (UK) Folk Album Ever....Pah
Posted by Commoner on 29 July 2008 - 8:23pm.
I know its a subjective exercise but Liege and Lief always gets hailed as the Greatest Folk Album Ever. It's alright but it was "folk rock" which was not the thing that got me into trad folk. I think we need to move on and find a successor. So what gets your vote?
Me? Well i put forward the one album I still love today that started me off in ealry 1990s which was Life and Limb by Dave Swarbrick & Martin Carthy featuring the fab Sovay
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Shirley and Dolly Collins
"Anthems in Eden" has always sent me scurrying for more. But is it the best?? Probably not!! I would say that Fairport's "Full House" is a pretty damn fine pointing-the-way album for me as is "Rout of The Blues" by Robin and Barry Dransfield
and Nick Jones's "Penguin Eggs" and Bert's "Rosemary Lane" but then again I think those who make up these lists actually dont listen to such a wide range of music to be really making these calls.
Carthy and Swarbrick...
but for me it's probably 'Byker Hill'. Fantastic...
And in particular
Carthy's sweet guitar introduction....
Not sure if this really qualifies
Richard and Linda Thompson - I Want to See The Bright Lights Tonight - such a winner. One of very few albums I like all the way through without hesitation and including the best use of a brass band on the magnificent title track.
Such a winner as an album even down to the cover which always intrigued me as a child as I leafed through my dad's album collection.
I am not a rule maker
but its Richard's electric guitar which makes it rock a little too much for a 'folk album' if i dare infer a genre...fab album though
If it doesnt have to be British
then I vote for Kate and Anna McGarrigles first album. If we are talking just British then probably Bright Lights or Steeleye Spans album with Parcel of Rogues on it - can't remember the title - Below the Salt or something like that.
"Hark
the Village Wake" Steve???
Parcel
The name of the album was Parcel Of Rogues. It was the title track.
Sorry
Didn't properly read the title of the thread.
I tweaked it to UK
which you might have missed....no need for apols Steve....grand suggestions UK or not UK
It's a great album...
...but I've never liked these 'best ever' polls much to be honest. How anything as subjective as music tastes can be quantified in such an arbitrary manner baffles me. This is what leads people to dub stuff like 'Pet Sounds' or 'Sgt Pepper' overrated, I feel, as few albums can live up to that kind of hype. But rant over, what I can do is list personal UK folk favourites!
Nic Jones' 'Penguin Eggs' is indeed a wonderful album, so I heartily agree with that one.
Love the Fairport albums; not just the 1968-70 stuff but I have a real soft spot for 'Babbacombe Lee' and 'Fairport Nine' too. I have to say, though, I know little about their output after 'Rising For The Moon'...the line-up/record label changes get a bit confusing for me!
Pretty much anything by any member of Pentangle in the 60s and 70s is worth listening to in my book. They've still got ability in spades too, as I can testify by being right at the front at a recent concert.
Steeleye Span's 'Now We Are Six' I always enjoyed; I remember a Record Collector review dubbed it 'more Sabbath than sackbut' and that seems quite accurate, it's a good one for heavier rock fans to get into, I think.
Lately I've been listening to an album called 'Swaddling Songs' by an Irish group called Mellow Candle which I'd had for ages but only just now gave it a serious listen and it really is a gem. I also acquired an album by a band called Caedmon which is another obscurity (privately-pressed) and in a similar vein. Also, I really like albums by Tudor Lodge, Trader Horne and Trees.
If you're into the really weird end of the spectrum, check out the otherworldly 'First Utterance' by Comus which you'll either love or absolutely loathe. It's kind of like Roger Chapman of Family singing with The Incredible String Band! That Wicker Man soundtrack is good, too.
Lammas Night Laments
If you know anyone with this series of CDRs that were in circulation a few years back (I think there were about 13/14 in the end, of which I have 11), beg steal or borrow them, as they're the motherlode of late 60s-70s weird/acid folk. The aforementioned and all the usual suspects are well represented, along with other less well renowned gems like Carolanne Pegg, Spirogyra, Tickawinda, Bread Love & Dreams and ultra-obscure but brilliant European stuff like Wittuser & Westrupp.
Leige Releif
Leig and Leif IS the best folk album ever made. Folk rock is a part of folk music therefore it is a folk album. A more accurate genre term would have been electric folk I feel, but it never caught on.
Other than that I would suggest Pentangle's debut album, I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight, or last year's Prodigal Son by Martin Simpson.
I disagree
I dont think its the best. Also I didnt mean to infer folk rock isnt 'proper folk' but that I think part of what made that album popular/accessible is the electric sound and popular arrangements.....I dont think there is 'a best folk album' but as folk is niche genre we rarely see other great folk albums celebrated unless you listen to Mike Harding... and that my dear Niks is what I am humbly trying to achieve...
Pentangle...like it, Bright lights...yep...Martin Simpson...yep but nor sure about his occasional American accent...not sure why in folk music you are laughed at for singing in a scots or irish accent if you are english but its ok to 'sing american'
If...
...Martin Simpson sang in Klingon I think he'd still make my brain swivel.
Obviously its subjective so there is no 'greatest ever folk album' but would you not concede that it is the most influential, ground breaking, enduring, etc. It is to folk what Sargeant Pepper's is to pop, what Talking Book is to soul and what It Takes of Nation of Millions is to hip hop. I'm afraid I don't know the equivalent for the genre of Peruvian Nose Flute music otherwise I'd add it to the list.
phew, here goes, i'll do my best
How I think it is influential and enduring is because:
(a) It was electric and it had drums
(b) It was promoted by John Peel
(b) That its rock essence made it palpable to a wider audience
(c) That it influences are predominatly for artists doing folk rock but less so for other folk styles
Is folk rock enduring? I think not based on a quick look at the last 9 BBC Folk Awards for Best Album which I think suggests its acoustic folk that is more enduring generally:
2008 Prodigal Son by Martin Simpson
2007 Freedom Fields by Seth Lakeman
2006 The Reckoning by John Tams
2005 Faultlines by Karine Polwart
2004 Sweet England by Jim Moray
2003 Anglicana by Eliza Carthy
2002 The Bramble Briar by Martin Simpson
2001 Unity by John Tams
2000 Sleepless by Kate Rusby
On a slightly different point lets also remember whilst Woody Guthrie is well known as a voice of folk music in America thanks to Springsteen and Dylan how often do you hear of Pop Maynard, Sam Larner, Joseph Taylor from the UK? No, people talk about Richard Thompson....who is great I admit but t goes further back than that
Unashamedly Folk-Rock
Liege and Lief is flanked best by Rise Up Like the Sun/Albion Band and Freedom and Rain/Oysterband and June Tabor.
The 2nd Kate Rusby CD, Sleepless might be an unamplified contender or The Purple album, as called, by Paul Brady and Andy Irvine. (Best of's by Planxty or the Bothy Band won't count, I guess!)
Moving Hearts self-titled debut
If we're crossing the Irish Sea and allowing a bit of Folk-Rock.
Totally awesome one - simply of the best albums of all time any genre.