Jotcamp is a pair of art students with some vague principles on media gluttony. We don’t want to just sit back and consume all the tasteful art we come across, so we’ve made this blog to compile and comment on that delicious media to keep our TV, music, and movies habit from becoming a one way conversation.
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41 posts tagged folk
Lindisfarne - Meet Me On The Corner
Lindisfarne’s second album,Fog On The Tyne, was just as magical as the first, full of lots of short folk songs. I love the amount of harmonica that’s played on this album, and all of the vocalists have wonderful British voices. Some people think that most of the songs are short because their record company was pressing them to produce records too quickly, but I think some of it has to do with the band pursuing more of a traditional blues and country style without a lot of psychedelic touches like lengthy soloing.
4 Plays | Download
Friendly Strangers - Bellflower
My room-mate and I have been devouring this album over the last few days. Friendly Strangers are basically what I think most indie bands ought to sound like. They’ve got a smattering of banjo, viola, and accordion on this record, set to a number of different styles. They’ve got a good sense of humour, as you’ll see in the lyrics and in the descriptions of the band that they’ve put onto their website:
Innocent bystanders have described Friendly Strangers’ music as “really pretty except for that one song” and “like that other band but not really at all.”
Pretentious folks have described Friendly Strangers songs as “modern Americana sewn to the corpse of a prominent early 20th century poet” or “a collection of spiteful hymns sprinkled with rosemary and carefully burned about the edges.”
52 Plays
Carolanne Pegg - A Witch's Guide to the Underground
Carolanne Pegg put out this charming folk rock album in 1973. She’d just split from her husband and the band project, Mr. Fox, that they’d begun together, so a lot of the songs are autobiographical about the tough time she had as a single mother. The record alternates between country-rock ballads and British folk arrangements led by Carolanne’s fantastic fiddle playing. She also dabbled in witch-craft when she was a busker, providing the inspiration for this song, A Witch’s Guide to the Underground. Unfortunately she didn’t manage to break into the industry, and when her musical aspirations didn’t pan out, she pursued a career in academics, studying Mongolian history.
0 Plays
Spirogyra - The Further Point
I thought I’d throw some more Spirogyra up onto Tumblr since I’ve never posted from their third album, Bells, Boots and Shambles, despite it being my favourite of their records.
Spirogyra was a 1970s psychedelic folk band from England that formed at the University of Canterbury. They put out three intense albums, adding a harder edge with each release.
1 Plays | Download
Caedmon - Ten Maidens Fair
Caedmon is a music collector’s wet dream. The self-titled album was produced in 1978 as a modest Scottish folk band’s farewell project before splitting up. As such, only 500 copies were originally released. But those records made it into the hands of just the right kind of pushy music lovers, and, because of its breath-taking instrumentation (sans drums), they’ve been preaching about it ever since.
This resulted in a 1994 CD reissue which let the former members know about the cult following they’d gained, which in turn spurred them to reform in recent years and put out a new album called, A Chicken To Hug. They also put up a website so you can obsess over the historic details of one of the rarest and greatest psychedelic folk albums ever made. The closest sounding folk act I can think of would probably be Spirogyra.
0 Plays
Leonda - Zono My Bird
Some crazy how Woman In The Sun, even through it was released through a major label, not only didn’t manage to catch on, but became one of the rarest records around. Leonda is a gorgeous 60s singer-songwriter. I didn’t really find our where she was from, just that she’s Native American and that her backing band were Canadian (The Paupers). The record just seems so freaking marketable, being a healthy mix of fantastic psychedelic folk and blues songs with just tinges of Native American folk influences. And she’s gorgeous!
11 Plays
Vulcan's Hammer - True Hearts And Sound Bottoms/Harvest Home
Vulcan’s Hammer is probably the most traditional British folk group I’ve listened to in a while. They remind me a lot of one of my long time favourites, Amazing Blondel except with some female vocals tucked into the mix. Unfortunately they didn’t produce nearly as much as Amazing Blondel, just this 1973 private pressing jam-packed with fiddle riffs and soft vocal harmonies. Also, I’m always a sucker for music that make’s Greek and Roman mythology references. Such a nerd.
0 Plays
Judy Henske & Jerry Yester - Horses On A Stick
This one of the albums I came out of the record store with on the weekend. The owner remembered a bunch of the albums I’d been pestering him for and had set them aside in a nook for me. It made me feel pretty awesome.
Judy Henske and Jerry Yester’s Farewell Aldebaran is wonderful bit of 60s strangeness. This married psychedelic folk duo, on Frank Zappa’s advice, recorded this 1969 record of Henske’s poetry put to a variety of types of music. The album bounces between psychedelic belters, hymns, and pop parodies while maintaining a death grip on listener’s attention through Henske’s deep and powerful vocals.
21 Plays | Download
Fairport Convention - Tam Lin
In my last few posts I’ve been referencing a few bands that I haven’t posted to Jotcamp yet, so today’s kind of a blogging catch-up day.
Fariport Convention doesn’t really need much of an introduction, does it? They were a major driving force behind the creation of folk-rock as a genre. Admittedly, the line differentiating “folk-rock” from just plan “folk” was pretty subtle at the time. The difference between the two genres is audible when you compare this 1969 song with the contemporary one I posted from The Pentangle yesterday. Fairport, sometimes, has a little more punchiness in their guitar riffs.
41 Plays | Download
The Pentangle - Train Song
First up today: The Pentangle! They were a dominant force in British folk group during the 1960s. Where some folk artists at the time were moving into a more rock-oriented sound, The Pentangle delved into an eclectic blend of jazz, classical, and both Middle Eastern and English folk elements (they sneak a sitar into the background any chance they get). Their virtuoso guitarists, spanning the inflences of so many genres, produce inspired acoustic guitar riffs and jams. This track, Train Song, starts off with a short guitar solo that really makes me wish I didn’t lend my acoustic to a friend.
10 Plays
