― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 12:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 12:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 12:29 (eighteen years ago) link
I apologise. It's just that appreciating, say, Fairport or Steeleye Span etc but then not appreciating the source singers from whom they got a lot of their material... well, that just don't add up to me.
― is, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 12:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 12:33 (eighteen years ago) link
― is, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 12:37 (eighteen years ago) link
― is, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 12:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 12:59 (eighteen years ago) link
Can you recommend some titles on CD? ie pre-1960s revival?
― bham, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:06 (eighteen years ago) link
First, it really comes down to a question of taste, and for me, music is all about the arrangement. Ed (of this parish) recently copied me a bunch of Nu Folk - mainly Bellowhead and John & John. Predictably, I enjoyed the Bellowhead a great deal more, even though it covered a lot of the same material, (same songs in a couple of incidences) because I just enjoyed listened to an 11 piece band with multiple harmonies more than I enjoyed listening to just two blokes, with more limited arrangements.
But that brings back to the notion of "authenticity" and which is more "authentic" - listening to some "turn of the century crackly voiced bloke on an old record" and field recordings or listening to more modern people reinterpreting or "romanticising" it.
Well, folk has *always* been a participatory artform. It's not just about one bloke with a guitar, it's about everyone down the pub, or on the village green, or wherever, getting together to sing songs they all know. The second point I wanted to make is that folk has always been about co-opting traditional songs, changing them to suit your conditions or your needs - every person who performs a song adds something of their own to it. That's what the folk tradition is. Not slavishly recreating whatever someone else used to do.
Anyway, that's just my 2p. I should get my dad in here to comment further because he knows what he's talking about more than I do.
― Cuair Crithlonracha (kate), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― is, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:25 (eighteen years ago) link
With regard to the vocal qualities of some of the old singers - the important thing was the songs they sang, not the singers... and anyway, I'd rather listen to an unpolished singer than some Radio Two-friendly 'folk' singer like... won't name any names.
Also, the only way to avoid refashioning the past (in the mistaken belief that you're doing something 'new' - i.e. Espers, Tunng, etc) -is to be aware of the past.
― is, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:26 (eighteen years ago) link
Exactly. So is it really necessary to listen to unaccompanied field-recordings?
― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:30 (eighteen years ago) link
Of course you don't HAVE TO listen to anything.
― is, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:33 (eighteen years ago) link
Were they really "aware" of that? Or were they just people who weren't very good singers?
― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― is, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:38 (eighteen years ago) link
I'm not a folk expert, but to my ears thier version of that song sounds very much like thier own. They claim to have lifted it right off of Jansch who lifted it right off of Clive Palmer. When you read interviews with those guys, they seem pretty deep into the traditions and roots off all sorts of music, espescially British folk. I'm going to listen to it now!
― peter x (bucksbreeze), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― is, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:42 (eighteen years ago) link
― is, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― peter x (bucksbreeze), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― is, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― Cuair Crithlonracha (kate), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― peter x (bucksbreeze), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:51 (eighteen years ago) link
The problem I have is that this is like the Lomax blues recordings, where Lomax seemed to purposefully seek out amateurs and field-hands and whatever thru some notion that they were more "authentic" - adn in doing so produced a distorted picture of what was actually going on. Actually expression or "chops" play a pretty big part in living folk traditions
― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:53 (eighteen years ago) link
Definitely... take, for example, Roscoe Holcomb. Technically dazzling banjo playing. And Jeannie Robertson could have been an opera singer! I love them both - but not necessarily for their technical abilities - but for their abilities to make me feel things.
The best singers/musicians make it sound effortless, as the above-mentioned do. They're technically accomplished but not show-offy.
― is, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― is, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 13:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 14:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 14:01 (eighteen years ago) link
I've never really liked show-offs in any sphere.
― is, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 14:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― emma cleveland (emma cleveland), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 23:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― electric sound of jim (and why not) (electricsound), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 23:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 23:24 (eighteen years ago) link
And if they're doing a lot to make people source out their influences, than kudos to them.
― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 02:01 (eighteen years ago) link
You could maybe argue they belong to some sort of British pastoral tradition that includes poeple like Robert Wyatt, but I guess that's not as snappy as "nu-folk", "wyrd folk" or worse, "folktronica".
Or you could just dismiss them as an indie band with a Wicker Man fetish.
― bham, Wednesday, 1 March 2006 10:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― NickB (NickB), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 10:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― nicky lo-fi (nicky lo-fi), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 08:37 (seventeen years ago) link
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/news/06-06/07.shtml
― kevin barking (arghargh), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 20:34 (seventeen years ago) link
http://www.oldhamtinkers.com/index.html
― -- (688), Friday, 5 January 2007 14:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― NickB, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 08:24 (seventeen years ago) link
This second Sweeney's Men record really is fucking fanTASTIC.
― ian, Sunday, 11 April 2010 05:17 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah, tracks of sweeney is some haunting stuff
― velko, Sunday, 11 April 2010 06:35 (fourteen years ago) link
anyone read this Electric Eden book (guess it is not out in the states yet)? Deals with "visionary British musicians" including a lot of british folk rockers. sounds like a good read anyway.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 12 January 2011 22:06 (thirteen years ago) link
I raved about it in this thread:
Good books about music
― ban this sick stunt (anagram), Wednesday, 12 January 2011 22:12 (thirteen years ago) link
oh cool -- looks like it is being published in the states this May ...
― tylerw, Wednesday, 12 January 2011 22:14 (thirteen years ago) link
Reading it (v. slowly) at the moment. Makes me want to give Vashti Bunyan another chance.
― seminal fuiud (NickB), Wednesday, 12 January 2011 22:20 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs9PMky7Fj0
^ Fantastic clip of the Watersons singing 'Hal-An-Toe' in a pub in Hull in the mid-60's. Becoming slowly obsessed with this tune, gets me right in the guts every time.
― seminal fuiud (NickB), Friday, 14 January 2011 17:15 (thirteen years ago) link