Shirley Collins. Classic. Dud is not an option here, I'm afraid.

my face looks kinda weird in this picture and the room is messy, but you can see two of my framed & signed anthems in eden poster!
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7246/7508668582_ca06eefb0f.jpg

haha!
i have no signed collins memorabilia, but listening to the shirley/dolly harvest years comp RIGHT NOW.
https://search.mog.com/v2/albums/15406939/image.jpeg?size=800

I got a Christmas card from her once. It resides in the boxed set to this day.

Tomorrow at Cecil Sharp House: http://www.spiralearth.co.uk/news/story.asp?nid=6503

At Cecil Sharp House on 1 November 2012 Shirley Collins, EFDSS President, who was herself a collector and whose voice has enchanted folk music audiences all over the world, will present an illustrated talk about Bob Copper's song collecting, to be followed by some songs and stories from the Copper Family themselves.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8176/8029993454_7b938b8883_z.jpg
shirley and nic jones awww

listening to the albion band - no roses! this is great, like whole nother awesome fairport convention record you haven't heard basically

great album!

my favorite yard sale find remains a NM vinyl copy (w/some acceptable front cover damage) of 'adieu to old england' for $1.

murder of the maria marten - wow!

not that shirley is involved bu the first steeleye span record, that's basically like another fairport record you haven't heard, too.

Yes and don't forget battle of the field by Albion Country Band

yeah is that hark the village wait? that's great too....been listening to a lot of this stuff...reading the book which you guys should read if you haven't:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ibTQpJa_o6s/TfO6Q7KQQlI/AAAAAAAACaI/JNvnyNDpM54/s1600/eden+1.jpg

it's kinda like the "this band could be your life" of UK folk/folk rock/witchy music

yeahhh, great book. guess he just put a sdtk out too http://www.amazon.com/Electric-Eden-Unearthing-Britains-Visionary/dp/B008KGWWKM/ref=pd_sim_b_2 -- though there was spotify playlist that had tons more stuff too.

yeah i was gonna say, spotify has pretty much revolutionized reading music books for me, that's all i've been reading lately, i just finished a history of the blues book too, it's so great to be able to go through the evolution step by step and actually hear all the songs that are reference while you're reading.

fuck, i just looked up that playlist! damn! i almost want to start this book over

ha, yeah, it is a great resource for that kind of thing. so many of those bands, 5-10 years ago, i'd be like, hmmm i wonder if i'll ever hear that. now you type in mr. fox or heron and you've got the whole discography. a little bit scary!

Trees aren't on Spotify, though (at least not last time I checked) (Trees the electric folkies not the more recent one).

Isn't there a David Keenan book along similar lines?

Did the CD companion to Electric Eden ever come out?

I found the book kinda dry myself.

I should have read above. Thanks for the link!

xxp yeah there are definitely holes. in fact, last time i looked, spotify was kind of short on davey graham records. don't know about the keenan book? electric eden is definitely one of the best music books i've read in a long while.

my favorite yard sale find remains a NM vinyl copy (w/some acceptable front cover damage) of 'adieu to old england' for $1.

― sug ones (omar little), Friday, November 9, 2012 5:04 PM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

murder of the maria marten - wow!

― captain angeroo (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, November 9, 2012 5:04 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark

omar - no WAY -- you cannot be serious! that's just unfair.
UMS - are you familiar with the story of maria marten? i recommend reading about the red barn murder/looking at the broadsheet/losing at least a few hours to the saga of maria marten. it's one of my favorites!!

no, i have no idea about maria marten, just heard the song for the first time today....will google it

one reason i'm glad i read this book cuz i guess i always associated steeleye span with some lamer celtic woman/chieftans type bullshit for some reaons...but yeah this early shit is fucking killer

yeah i'm pretty into their guitar sound on those early records. so harsh!

you will enjoy, also i totally recommend this book if googling doesn't fully satisfy (i'd post a pic of the cover but the ones online suck and i don't feel like scanning mine atm)
http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?keyword=curtis+mackenzie+maria+marten&mtype=B&hs.x=0&hs.y=0

Martin Carthy playing electric guitar is such an unlikely thing

another thing i learned from that book:

dave mattacks from fairport convention plays on EVERY RECORD recorded between 1969 and 1973 in the UK

speaking of books i couldn't resist -- this is the inside cover

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8198/8170675741_e294b122de_c.jpg

Isn't there a David Keenan book along similar lines?

He wrote a book about the Current 93/Coil/NWW nexus (England's Hidden Reverse), which may or may not contain some stuff on Shirley Collins (obviously there's links to C93 there). I do remember when I saw the Telstar Ponies in Brighton in 1995-ish, they played an old English folk song (can't remember what) and Keenan dedicated it to her so the guy was definitely ahead of the curve on the whole folk revival revival.

i couldn't believe it when i found that lp, LL. the guy had a few hundred records in boxes and i think they'd already been picked over, the only other one i left with was i think a bob james lp.

Telstar Ponies did a tune called Farewell, Farewell, but it's not the Richard Thompson tune from Liege & Lief (itself based on an old tune), but a reworking of various folk songs plus their own material. It builds to a coda which is pretty much a straight quote of Go From My Window which Shirley did a gorgeous version of, so maybe that emerged from their earlier live versions of that song... It's on that great Geographic compilation http://www.dominorecordco.com/uk/geographic/29-01-07/you-dont-need-darkness-to-do-what-you-think-is-right/

Shirley's talks are absolutely wonderful. If you ever get the chance to attend one don't pass it up. I'm sure this point has made on here before, but her book on America Over The Water is essential reading. Apparently she isn't interested in doing further books, which is a shame, considering what a good writer she is and her amazing life, but I have to respect her decision. We have the talks though...

seriously omar i would die -- if that happened to me i would pass out and then maybe die
that's just too much. i can't take it.

I'm sure this point has made on here before, but her book on America Over The Water is essential reading.
Agree 100%! It's a great book, and really illuminating wrt the Lomax recordings. I also respect her decision to stop whenever she pleases -- I admire a well-timed exit.

love the cover:

http://www.kingbeerecords.co.uk/pics/large/shirley_collins-lp-adieu_to_old_england.jpg

it was one of those moments that happens to me a couple times per year where i see a record and then sort of look around and hide it behind another record, and i don't know why i do it but it's instinct. then i have that moment when i hand the money over where i feel like i'm getting away with thievery and i'm about to get caught.

Listen, I'm just going to have to be ok being super envious of that but in the meantime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsyjbKm8DcU

that record sleeve is super-nice, especially compared to the horrid reissue

slightly OT but wtf at this cover

http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/guvnor/images/largerec/bygloucesterdocksisatdownandwept.jpg

haha, that's almost as wack as henry the human fly

i think the deeper you get into the britfolk wormhole the more terrible the covers get
http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/2364155960a2feca63af289abce06bdf/42179.jpg
obviously they're trying to show that there's humor, it isn't all doom n gloom, or just pastoral grooves, but errr.

Was listening to a bit of Malicorne earlier who were kind of like a french version of the Albion Band. Pretty good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob7HGfpUAxk

Picked up a nice copy of the 4 Men With Beards reissue of Folk Roots, New Routes

Great record! Nice to have a Davy Graham record without his singing, Shirley is great on this

oh man "hares on the mountain" is so good
the whole thing is good but that song always kills me

"love is pleasin'" too

yeah it is such a good record, didn't know there was a reish.
i was thinking about doing a britfolk lady poll, has that been done before? a no holds barred smackdown between shirley, sandy, anne, jacqui, maybe a couple of others.

i'm not even going to encourage that because i am so 400% on team shirley that you would have to prod me with an electric zapper in a buenos aires torture dungeon in order to change my mind.

no exaggeration

weird.. my friend recommended No Roses to me the other day and i've been jamming it since. poor murdered woman is my jam

"British" folk, folk rock, folk pop, trad, w/e female singers of the 1960s & 70s

aha, i thought it had been done...

I got th ehard back version of America Across The Water last week read 1/2 of it6 between last night nad this morning. Very enjoyable read. Wish there wasa further volume of her memoir, this one covers th erecording trip with Alan Lomax in the late 50s in alternating chapters with her growing up in wartime/postwar Hastings.
So woul dbe great to get somethng that covered the time from her return from the recording trip to her retiring from recording or later. I would love that in her own words.

I stress that i [picked up the hardback version since this seems to be the one version styill around. A softback was available initially but seems to have very rising price. Not sure if Book Depositary who I got it through just happen to have a backlogof hardbacks or what the story is.
In short if you want a copy I'd grab one sooner rather than later
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/America-Over-Water-Shirley-Collins/9780946719662

huh, is the paperback a valuable book? i got it at a local shop for $3 less than two yrs ago.