neo-folk

Van Morrison: Astral Weeks (1968)

2014/10/10

Van Morrison – 1968 My track of the day, “Astral Weeks” by Van Morrison, needs little introduction. If, you’ve ever heard the album its off of, you’re more than likely already been shrouded with its all-encompassing feeling and uniqueness. No other folk song, or album, has ever had its kind of mystical worldliness. Most of…
Donovan: Widow with a Shawl (A Portrait) (1967)

2014/10/09

Donovan – 1967 Sometimes we don’t give enough credit to the quiet ones. My track of the day, Donovan’s “Widow with a Shawl (A Portrait)”, was another hugely influential English folk song that propulsed England’s folk-rock movement forward, and it did so in such a way no one expected. During the time he recorded this…
Pink Floyd: Scarecrow (1967)

2014/10/08

Pink Floyd – 1967 I know the title of this post is really supposed to suggest one specific track, in this case its Pink Floyd’s “Scarecrow”, but in my full view, the feel of the track encapsulates a certain twisted folk being created in 1967, under the guise of psychedelia. Before the Incredible String Band’s…
The Beatles: Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane (1967)

2014/10/07

The Beatles – 1967 The track of the day is the very unknown single “Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane” from a cult band called the Beatles. Joking aside, what pray tell makes this track so important in the grand scheme of English neo-folk music I’m trying to delineate? Well, if you remember the groundbreaking folk rock…
The Byrds: Wild Mountain Thyme (1966)

2014/10/06

The Byrds – 1966 What exactly was the genesis showing a new way forward in English folk music? My track of the day, “Wild Mountain Thyme” by The Byrds, starts showing the huge influence rock and pop music started to play in shaping this new neo-folk music that was to be made in England. A…
Jackson C. Frank: Blues Run the Game (1965)

2014/10/05

Jackson C. Frank History is littered with characters like Jackson C. Frank. As equally immensely talented as he was troubled emotionally/physically, the few musical statements he released before the personal side overtook the talent, were immensely influential. As I course through trying to provide some kind of concise history of the rise of neo-folk traditions…
Shirley Collins and Davy Graham: Love is Pleasin’ (1964)

2014/10/04

Shirley Collins and Davy Graham Today’s track of the day “Love is Pleasin’” from Davy Graham and Shirley Collins, provides another column from which future English folk and folk rock would raise itself up from. In America, folk artists were moving into the realm of blues and country music to create a new type of…
Anne Briggs: Blackwater Side (1963)

2014/10/03

Anne Briggs – 1963 Now this is where the shift begins. I’ve always wanted to delineate the kind of transformation that England’s folk music went through from its early folk phase to its sorta modern iteration. There’s something utterly fascinating about a bunch of those groups and a lot of that sound. The question is:…
Franco Battiato: Sequenze e Frequenze (1973)

2014/09/27

I’m heading into the island of Milo, Sicily for a tiny bit. Back to catch what Franco Battiato was doing around this time. What a surprise it is to see him wrap up all his first stabs at mixing the electronic with the serene into one way too far ahead for its time musical statement.…
Jose “Zeca” Afonso: Coro da Primavera (1971)

2014/09/21

Zeca – 1971 Today’s track of the day, “Coro da Primavera” (Springtime Chorus), comes from the supremely important Portuguese artist Jose “Zeca” Afonso. Born in 1929 in the port city of Aveiro, Portugal this fairly inconspicuous man would be the last person you’d think who would grown up and write such songs like “Grandola, Vila…