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Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson – 1972 I’m allowed to go out on a limb right? On the same year the Jethro Tull released the best Prog rock album ever Thick as a Brick, they quite possibly released one of the year’s best folk albums as well. I know, I know, weren’t Sandy Denny’s Sandy and Nick…
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Where do you go when you don’t quite know how to continue onward? You start to deconstruct your own past and footsteps. In 1972, an artist like Mark Fry must have been asking himself these questions. His influences Donovan, and Marc Bolan had started to go glam, and he himself wasn’t quite ready to leave…
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Lindisfarne 1972, was such a transitional year for English neo-folk. There were such a paucity of solid releases and well thought out ideas coming out of that genre that you’d be hard pressed to figure out why this was happening. You could say that bands like Lindisfarne, once thought of as the next Beatles, presented…
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Fuchsia Now this is another great, truly forward thinking, one album English neo-folk wonder. How about a 6-piece band where the real thrust of power comes from its 3-piece string trio? Fuchsia a Devon band fulfilled the promise that nascent artists like the Electric Light Orchestra, and similar ilk rarely accomplished as well…the idea of marrying…
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Jan Dukes de Grey Before we jump into 1972, lets catch two final one album wonder English neo-folk bands. Bands like these show the great aspect progression and complexity are starting to define the sound of their music. No longer content with paying due diligence to tradition they’re seeking to go beyond it, experimenting with…
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Alan Stivell – 1971 Let’s blur the line of history even further. What does French-born musician Alan Stivell (real name Alan Cochevelou) have in any way, shape, or form to do with English neo-folk? Could you believe this same man created the first strains of Celtic rock. The music of all the Gaelic traditions owe…
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Spirogyra (Martin and Barbara far right) Now here’s another interesting band. One that highlights the importance of giving equal providence to other voices, feelings, and sounds that English neo-folk was exploring. Spirogyra, appropriately enough, another band hailing from the mystical Yorkshire Dales area (home of Mr. Fox if you can remember!) has a very distinct…
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Bridget St. John in France. Have you been noticing a pattern in England’s neo-folk movement? For myself it’s the important role women played in shaping this music. Somehow, its interesting that while other genres were becoming increasingly segmented off by race and gender, English Neo-Folk was increasingly becoming a genre where women didn’t have to…
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Roy Harper You know, for me, there’s one reason I’ll give Jimmy Page a lifetime pass, it’s for his brief period supporting the genuinely offbeat, yet equally brilliant Roy Harper, and in doing so delivering both of their best work. Released in 1970, “The Same Old Rock” from Roy Harper’s Stormcock ushered in a new age…
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Now here’s a great English neo-folk artist lost to time. Shelagh McDonald, born in Edinburgh, was a gorgeous Scottish folk singer destined for stardom. Her style was uniquely urbane, mixing Joni Mitchell sonics with Nick Drake-like singing and atmosphere. Some of the upper echelon of English folk-rock luminaries like members from Fotheringay, Fairport Convention, Mighty…
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